Oh come on, there is so much rubbish. Maybe in the US the better stuff gets there but I see tons of the rubbish.

Maybe this is like japan was seen post WWII - as inferior "clone" makers, but then things change. Maybe, I hope so.

I certainly have no problem with China "doing a Japan" at all, so it not out of fear or anything (which is probably the fuel behind the "talking points" I guess you are talking about). I think it would be great- a big, peaceful successful country producing great products that make life better, what's not to like !

Well its only anecdotal, but my log book of consumer good that fail about 18 months into use from basic fatigue problems and general shoddiness would say otherwise (all made in china). But then again, we don't have a choice now.

There is a huge logical fallacy in saying our good jobs are going to China and the stuff China produces is junk. They produce things we buy, which means it isn't junk. They make it cheaper than we do, which means they are better at it (environmental concerns aside).

Have you seen the growth curves from China recently? Sustained double digit growth for _decades_. It is unprecedented. China isn't "doing a Japan". They are doing so much better than that.

They started from a pretty low base. By the way the famous Asian Tigers and Ireland had fantastic growth, too. Not to forget war-torne europe and their Wirtschaftswunder.

we like junk then ! I am just tired of buying a dvd player a year. Of course it is so cheap it may as well be free with a disc, but still, maybe I am old fashioned and think appliances should last ;)

Designed obsolescence has little to do with manufacturing moving to China.