【Quora】为什么中国要生产这么多低质量、甚至是有潜在危险的产品? [美国媒体]

Why does China produce so many low-quality, even potentially dangerous products?
​
为什么中国要生产这么多低质量、甚至是有潜在危险的产品?


David Levy, Living and working in China since 1986
Why do China produce so many low-quality, even potentially dangerous such as electronics catching fire or bikes falling apart, products?
[EDIT 5/2/18 Summary: China produces many products, at all quality levels, but only the problems make news. Importers need do their homework with regards to vendor selection, technical communication, and quality assurance.]
There are several reasons why many associate China with poor quality, which I summarize as follows:
Selection Bias 1: China makes lots of stuff, from high-end to low, so lots of low-quality stuff comes out of China along with the good stuff. But the high quality stuff is ignored because it’s not “news”.
Selection Bias 2: Because low-quality/low-cost production trends toward high-volume/low-cost, the amount of low-quality stuff on the market dwarfs the volume of high-quality stuff. The sample sizes self-select.
Product Specification Issues: Sometimes, buyers specify poor quality or low reliability in order to save money, or because they don’t know better. Safety issues are often resultant (although I argue they do not always need to do so. Quality issues in low-cost goods can often be mitigated by best practices. That’s another rant for another answer.)
Vendor qualification Issues: Buyers sometimes don’t want to pay the cost of verifying that the goods they purchase meet their quality requirements. They don’t expend the resources required to ensure their factory employs best practices, and has a reputation for accountability. They spend time choosing the product and establishing a price level, but will spend no time choosing the vendor. The truth is that some Chinese manufacturers have adopted “low quality” or “unsafe” production as a business model.

David Levy, 1986年开始在中国生活和工作。
为什么中国生产这么多低质量的，甚至像电子产品着火或自行车脱落这种有潜在危险的产品？
[编辑5/2/18小结:中国生产许多不同档次的产品，但只有出问题时才被报道。进口商需要在选择供应商、技术沟通和质量保证方面做足功课。]

人们认为中国产品质量不高的原因有很多，我总结如下:
1.选择偏见1:中国制造了很多东西，从高端到低端，所以很多低质量和高质量的东西都来自中国。但是高质量的东西被忽略了，因为它不会产生“新闻”。

2.选择偏见2:由于低质量/低成本的产品往往会形成高产量/低成本的规模，所以低质量的产品在市场上的数量远高于高质量的产品。
3.产品规格问题:有时，购买者为了省钱而专门购买低质量或低可靠性的产品，或者因为他们不知道有更好的产品。这就往往造成了一些安全问题(尽管我认为厂家并不是必须这么做，他们完全可以通过提高质量来缓和低价产品的质量问题，这是我对另一个问题的与主题无关的咆哮。）

4.卖方资格问题:买方有时不愿意为高质量货物支付符合其质量的费用。他们不会耗费金钱来确保供应商有最好的质量，和负责的名声。买家会花费大量时间选择产品和建立价格标准，但是不会花时间选择供应商。事实是，一些中国制造商采用了“低质量”或“不安全”的生产模式作为商业模式。

Now, I work in Electronics, manufacturing power supplies in China that do not catch fire. I can assure you that if I produced bicycles here, I would employ the appropriate procedures and processes, ensuring that the bikes would not fall apart.
I can also tell you that I have purchased large quantities of Chinese-made components both mechanical and electronic, and that it is 100% possible to get high-quality, safe products, if you are willing to do your product and vendor qualification.
On a personal level, I have been using many Chinese phones (Huawei) and many Chinese Bicycles (Giant, others). None of my Chinese phones or chargers has ever caught fire, and none of my Chinese bikes has ever fallen apart.

现在，我在电子行业工作，在中国制造的供电设备不会着火。我可以向你保证如果我在这里生产自行车，我同样会采用适当的生产程序，确保自行车不会解体。

我还可以告诉你，我已经购买了大量中国制造的机械和电子产品，如果你是一位供应商，你可以100%的获得高质量、安全的产品。

在个人层面上，我一直在使用中国手机(华为)和中国自行车(Giant等)。我的中国手机和充电器从来没有失火过，我的中国自行车也没有一辆摔坏。

Marshall Gass, Roadside philosopher
China has a gigantic manufacturing base. To complement this base labour is cheap, technology is freely transferred, imitations are plentiful, raw material is also abundant, environment laws are ignored, prices are always negotiable, and products come out on production lines that turn out high end, and low end on the same production line.
The low end product with the poor raw material and chrome plated design is sold at a mouth watering price on the world market. This is how the price varies from high-end to low end. You can always negotiate the price.
China runs three shifts on the same line. The contracted goods with the correct price bracket goes into the best shift and the not so good product goes into the second line shift while the least favoured product takes the 3rd, night shift. Manning these shifts are people who are qualified according to quality of product. This will surprise many observers. Low end products are night shift workers. The production line never stops. It is always rumbling along.
Demand is created by excess of production. The low end products go to low end countries at low prices. It so happens that these countries cannot manufacture the same product at the same price. They have different technologies and pay rates and often no technology at all.
China always turned out crap. For years and years the little tin train never made it past Christmas day. I cant say the same today. It is so much better- but with the imitation technology that has now developed. That imitation technology is partly nicked from somewhere. They have little respect for intellectual property or patents. So… Low end or High end they will make it for you!
So many thousands of their products are better than world standard. Yet so many other thousands of their products are below third world standards but the price is the magnet that draws the customers in. Its always the price. The product must sell to keep the factories booming. People must have their jobs. The economy grows on this inflated price structure.
So there we have it. Want the top end or low -end? You can have both for the same price. Labour laws? What’s that? Intellectual Property? Who is checking? Dangerous goods? We all use it? Warranties, Guarantees? Its only paper! etc.etc.
Good luck.
Thanks for the A2A

Marshall Gass,路边的哲学家
中国拥有庞大的制造业规模。为了形成这一规模优势，中国的劳动力很廉价，技术可以自由转让，仿制品丰富，原料也丰富，环境法律被忽视，价格可以协商。一条生产线上同时生产高端和低端的产品。
低端产品与劣质的原料和山寨的设计在世界市场上以令人垂涎的价格出售。这就是价格从高端到低端的变化。你可以一直讨价还价。

中国在同一条线路上运行三班。有合同的正价商品进入第一班，不太好的产品进入第二班，而最不受欢迎的产品采用第三班，夜班。这些班次的人员被要求制作质量与价格相符的产品。这令许多观察人士感到意外。低端产品是夜班工人。生产线从来没有停止过。它总是隆隆作响。

需求是由生产过剩造成的。低端产品以低价进入低端国家。碰巧这些国家不能以同样的价格生产同样的产品。他们有良莠不齐的技术和工资，而且通常没有完整的技术。

中国一直都生产垃圾。多年来，生产线从来没有放过假。我今天不能再说这种违心之言了。这些仿制品是如此的好，他们模仿技术已经相当发达了。这种模仿技术有一点点缺陷。那就是他们很少尊重知识产权。所以…低端或高端的产品他们都会为你做的!

成千上万的产品比世界标准更好。然而，其他成千上万的产品都低于第三世界标准，但价格是吸引顾客的磁铁。它的价格永远低廉。产品必须被出售以保持工厂的繁荣。人们必须有自己的工作。经济在这个膨胀的价格结构上继续增长。

好了。想要高端还是低端?你可以用同样的价钱买。劳动法吗?那是什么?知识产权?谁来检查?危险货物吗?我们都使用它哦?保证,担保?它就是张纸!
祝你好运。
谢邀。

Derek Harkness, Living and working in China since 2006.
You’re looking at it from the wrong end. You should be asking, why do US (I’m assuming the OP is American) importers and merchants buy so many low-quality, even potentially dangerous, produces.
The fact that they come from China is really neither here nor there. It happens to be China that is their favourite source just now. When I was young, the goods would be labelled Made in Taiwan, made in Hong Kong. Before that, my parents remember when made in Japan was the mark of cheap tat.

Derek Harkness，2006年起在中国生活和工作。
你从错误的角度看待这个问题了。你应该问，为什么我们(我假设楼主是美国人)的进口商和商人购买了如此多的低质量，甚至有潜在危险的产品。

他们来自中国，不是其他地方，碰巧只有中国是他们最喜欢的货源地。当我年轻的时候，这些货物会被贴上台湾制造的标签。在那之前，我的父母还记得，在日本制造的东西是廉价货的标志。



It really doesn’t matter where it comes from. The fact is, there are many companies set up, whose purpose is to sell crap. They know it is crap. These companies focus on the marketing and advertising to create an image of a fabulous product. Often they use a form of distance selling, such as TV shopping channels or Amazon, so you can’t view the quality for yourself. Or sometimes they sell cheap electronics with a nice box so you can’t know how badly formed the circuitry is inside. If you could actually try it out, you wouldn’t buy it.
How do you avoid buying the garbage? Just don’t fall for the marketing. If someone has a truly great product, they don’t need to advertise it. If someone is working very hard to sell you something, then you have to ask why? The harder someone is marketing at you, the more you have to reject. Anything on a TV infomercial is highly suspect. It is usually worth opting for the quality item rather than the discount item. You’ll have to pay a bit more, but it will be worth it in the long run.
Where I live, in China, people don’t buy these junk items if they can help it. The disposable economy hasn’t taken off here as it has in the west. People expect things to last a reasonable length of time. They don’t buy more than they really need and if they can’t afford to buy a good version, then they will do without rather than accept substandard goods.

它来自哪里并不重要。事实是，有许多公司的目的就是推销垃圾。他们知道这是垃圾。这些公司把重点放在市场营销和广告上，以创造出一种神话般的产品形象。他们通常使用一种远距离销售的方式，比如电视购物频道或亚马逊，所以你不能自己看质量。或者有时候他们会用一个漂亮的盒子包装便宜的电子产品，而你不知道里面的电路有多差。如果你可以试用，你就不会买了。

如何避免购买垃圾?只是别倾心于营销。如果某人有一个真正伟大的产品，他们不需要做广告。如果有人非常努力地想卖给你什么东西，那你就得问为什么?别人越努力推销，你就越要拒绝。电视广告上的任何东西都是非常可疑的。通常来说，选择高质量商品而不是打折商品是值得的。你得多花点钱，但从长远来看是值得的。

我住的地方，在中国，人们不买这些垃圾产品，除非他们真的有用。在这里，一次性经济并没有像在西方那样腾飞。人们希望产品能持续一段合理的时间。他们不会购买超出所需的产品，如果他们买不起好的产品，他们宁愿不买也不会购买劣等品。

Your iPhone was made in Shenzhen, China, by Foxconn.

你的iPhone是由富士康在中国深圳制造的。



Prada, Nike and Adidas shoes made by Dongguan Stella Footwear Co. in China.

普拉达、耐克和阿迪达斯鞋由东莞斯特拉鞋类公司生产。



Armani Jeans are made in China.

阿玛尼牛仔裤是中国制造的。



Coach bags are made in China.

Coach包是中国制造的。



The famous British fashion brand Burberry relocated its factories to East Asia, including China.
These aren’t fakes or cheap knock-offs. These are the genuine articles. You’re top quality designer brand goods are made right next door to that cheap USB adapter you bought of eBay for $2.95.

着名的英国时尚品牌巴宝莉将其工厂迁至包括中国在内的东亚地区。



这些不是假货，也不是廉价的仿制品。这些是正品。是顶级设计师品牌的产品，其工厂就在你在eBay上以2.95美元买到的廉价USB适配器的工厂旁边。

Chris Anderson, Lived/Worked in Asia for 2+ years and still very connected professionally and culturally.
Updated Apr 26
Here’s the story of a friend of a friend who made millions (yes, millions) of dollars by learning Mandarin (Chinese language). He worked for a different Asian country and his sole job was to attend trade show negotiations between buyers and Chinese manufacturers. He would alert buyers when Chinese sellers (thinking he did not know the language) would discuss ‘substitute’ materials as a way to meet low cost requirements.
In reality, the Chinese sellers may have just perfected the price, quality, speed triangle. It’s not that Chinese manufacturers set a goal of using potentially dangerous products but negotiation can lead to difficult decisions and that may mean the seller chose feeding their family over protecting yours.
China is an OK manufacturing hub but wages are increasing and other nations are emerging as quality alternatives. Vietnam, India, and sometimes even the USA might be really good alternatives for buyers who are willing to level the playing field.

Chris Anderson在亚洲生活/工作了2年，在专业和文化方面仍然有很多联系。
这是一个朋友的朋友的故事，他通过学习汉语(中文)赚取了数百万美元(是的，数百万美元)。他在另一个亚洲国家工作，他唯一的工作就是参加买家和中国制造商之间的贸易谈判。他会提醒买家，中国卖家(认为他不懂中文)会讨论“替代”材料，以满足低成本的需求。

在现实中，中国卖家可能只是在完善价格、质量和速度的三角关系。这并不是说中国制造商致力于生产潜在危险产品，但谈判可能会使他们做出艰难的决定，这可能意味着卖家会选择赚钱养他们的家人而不是保护你的家人。

中国是一个不错的制造业中心，但工资水平在不断提高，使得其他国家逐渐成为替代选择。越南、印度，有时甚至是美国，对于愿意公平竞争的买家来说，可能是不错的选择。

Callan Chua, Been Learning how to make it in China for the past 10 years.
Answered Apr 24
China produces so many low-quality products due to the western concept of capitalism and democracy.
Why? Capitalism is an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state. And democracy is a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.
So based on the western concept of these 2 ideology, the elected states representatives shall not intervene in the free market despite them being sponsored by these capitalist who are also part of the population.
And since these capitalist are supposed to be profit driven, they WILL go for maximum profit since in a free market, there is no need for any accountability.
To totally show you how real this is, I will share a real life experience.
In my younger years, I was a purchaser for a Furniture company in Singapore. It is part of my job to follow my boss to China on his purchasing trips. One of the things he will often do is to purchase a piece of furniture which he thinks will sell well from Europe and have it ship to a co-operating factory in China. We will then visit the factory after a replicate of the furniture is produced.
Normally, I’m not involved in the bargaining of prices with the factory as this is done between my boss and the factory owner. It just so happens that on this one trip, my boss allowed me to sit in during one of such bargaining sessions.
In this case, the product is a set of leather sofa (3+2 seater) from Italy which my boss bought for about USD 4000. The factory owner offer to replicate the sofa at RMB 5000 (about USD 700 at the time) per set using the exact same materials and dimensions. After some thought, my boss asked if this be done at RMB 2500. The factory owner took out a calculator and after pushing some buttons, said yes, but some changes to specifications have to be made. The sofa would be have to be 10cm smaller on both the width and depth, leather would not be the same (would not be using top grain leather), sponge density would also need to be lessen, reduce by 2 set of spring per seat, rubber belting has to be of inferior quality and the wooden frame will be using southern china timber instead of nothern pine. For the less technical inclined, it simply means that the quality would be reduced drastically.
My boss thought for awhile, and asked again, what can be done for RMB 2000? The factory owner again starts to punch on his calculator and again came up with a set of different specs. After some rounds of exchange, the final amount comes to RMB 1400 for a set of the sofa.

Callan Chua，在过去的10年里，一直在学习如何赶上中国。（这是个台湾人）
中国生产的许多低质量的产品是由于西方的资本主义和民主观念。

为什么?资本主义是一种经济和政治制度，一国的贸易和工业由私人所有者控制，而不是由国家控制。民主是一种由全体人民或所有国家成员组成的政府系统，通常是通过选举产生代表。
因此，基于这两种意识形态的西方概念，当选的州代表不应干预自由市场，尽管他们是由这些资本主义者赞助的，但是他们也是人民的一部分。

既然这些资本家被认为是利润驱动的，他们就会追求利润最大化，因为在自由市场中，他们没有必要承担任何责任。
为了向你展示这是多么真实，我将分享一个真实的生活经历。

在我年轻的时候，我是新加坡一家家具公司的采购员。我的工作之一就是跟随我的老板去中国采购。他经常做的一件事就是购买一件他认为会畅销欧洲的家具，并将其运往中国的一家合作工厂。我们将在他们山寨好了家具后参观工厂。

通常情况下，我不会和工厂讨价还价，因为这是我老板和工厂老板之间的事。但是在这次旅行中，我的老板允许我在这样一个讨价还价的过程中围观了一次。

这次的情况，产品是一套来自意大利的皮沙发(3+2座)，我的老板花了4000美元买的。工厂老板提供的沙发，每台售价5000元人民币(约700美元)，使用完全相同的材料和尺寸。经过一番思考，我的老板问是否可以卖2500元人民币。工厂老板拿出一个计算器，按了一些按钮后，同意了，但要做一些修改。沙发会小10厘米的宽度和深度,皮革不会是相同的(不会使用顶级的粒面皮革),海绵密度也需要减少,每个座位减少2组弹簧，橡胶带必须是质量低劣的那种，木制框架将使用中国南方木材而不是北方松木。对于不懂行的人来说，这仅仅意味着质量将大大降低。

我的老板想了一会儿，又问:“2000元可以做什么?”工厂老板又开始打他的计算器，又想出了一套不同的规格。经过几轮的交流，最终的金额是一套沙发1400元。

Later I asked my boss why he choosed this specs at this price. He said that it’s what the market demands, consumers are very visual when it comes to retail purchases. The point is to make it as similar as the original visually at the lowest price. If he cannot do this, someone else would be doing the same thing as he did after he introduced this design to the market. So why wait for them to do it? He would want to take up the biggest market share for this product as fast as he could at the best profit that the market allows before others jump on the band wagon.
I was in awe at the ingenuity of the factory owner and the shrewdness of my boss at that time. I later found out that it’s the same wherever you go, in China or anywhere in the world be it India, Vietnam, thailand or any developing country.
Did the factory owner lie or cheat anyone? Nope. He was very upfront in his dealings with my boss. My boss (the capitalist) is the one who decides on what he actually wants, pricing over quality, despite the fact that he is already getting more bang for his buck at RMB 5000. And he is just conforming to market force as a businessman, just like the factory owner is conforming to the needs of my boss as a factory.
So my point here is this, if you as a consumer is ready to pay for more and would rather do so for better quality, you can influence the capitalist to sell more quality products. They would not want to sell low quality products if there is no market for it. AND quality must come at a price.
Thankfully, China is not fully capitalist in the western sense and their population understands what they are paying for. They normally don’t buy these Cheap (poor quality) products.

后来我问我的老板，为什么他在这个价格上选择了这个规格。他说，这是市场的需求，消费者在购买商品时非常直观。关键是要以最低的价格使它与原版的视觉效果尽量一样。如果他做不到这一点，其他人也会做同样的事情，就像是他把这个设计引入市场一样。那为什么要等他们来做呢?他想在市场允许的情况下以最快的速度占据这个产品最大的市场份额，在其他人上车之前。

当时我对工厂老板的聪明才智和我老板的精明感到敬畏。我后来发现无论你去哪里，在中国或世界上的任何地方，无论是印度、越南、泰国还是任何发展中国家，都是一样的。

工厂老板撒谎或欺骗任何人吗?不。他在和我老板打交道时非常坦率。我的老板(资本家)在得到了5000元这样优惠的价格后提出他想要的是性价比更高的产品。而他只是作为一个商人来适应市场，就像工厂老板一样，要符合我老板的需求。

所以我想说的是，如果你作为一个消费者愿意为了更好的质量而支付更多的钱，你就可以影响资本家销售更多的优质产品。如果没有市场，他们就不愿意卖低质量的产品。但是高质必然伴随着高价。
值得庆幸的是，中国在西方意义上并不是完全的资本主义，他们的人民明白他们在为什么付出。他们通常不买这些便宜(质量差)的产品。

Sam Lu
Because if people like you have more money or willing to pay more, we would be making more high quality products. Supply and demand, Econ101. So to sum it up, it’s all your fault.

因为如果像你这样的人有更多的钱或者愿意付更多的钱，我们就会生产更多高质量的产品。有需求才有供给。所以，都是你的错。