On this forum, a few days ago, somebody posted a bit of blog post that reference this book: Poorly made in china, by Paul Midler.
I read it (listened to it?).
I found it very interesting.
There are concepts like quality fade i hadnt heard about before. For example on aliexpress, you buy a jersey, and what you receive looks like the listing. Then a month later you order again, and you receive crap. That's quality fade, and the author explains how that's endemic in China. Often, factories would agree to supply products at a low price, sometimes at cost, knowing full well they will then increase their margins over time by breaking the contract and pissing on the customer. You agreed for a tier of material, they start using a lower tier. You agreed on a given quantity in a formula, they start using lower quality ingredients, and so on.
There's nothing on the bike industry, and the book was published in 2009, so it's all quite dated, but i found the cultural elements especially interesting, where what the West considers to be fraud, and shameful, China considers to be business as usual, if not outright smart, and therefore praise worthy.
A good read for us people dealing with Chinese counterparts, and also for those interested in the global economy in general.
Race has nothing to do with it, and everything to do with culture. And changing a culture is hard work, if not impossible. So, no reason to be surprised to find interactions often frustrating, both worlds run on very different mind softwares.
The book is available on libgen.rs, and the audio is on audiobook bay. Not that i would ever use such sources myself, ofc.
