Not true, you get what you pay for. Western companies make purchases from manufacturers and once it sells well they nickel and dime their suppliers. So when they say it must be cheaper, the manufacturer sais yes.. and they replace a metal holder with a plastic once painted chrome.. to lower the price as requested. This is how it works.
You know, lots of things have changed since then. Also, please check how many items in your household are made in China. You will be surprised how good their quality is, compared to the things you can buy for no money on AliExpress or Temu.
As someone who has lived in China, no that's not the case. Of course Chinese people can and do make high quality things, but there is a huge amount of incredibly poor quality stuff at all levels. As an example the floor of the flat I lived in fell through into the (thankfully empty) flat below two years after I left it, the building was less than 15 years old.
Partially its because of the real lack of regulatory oversight in China and partially because of a cultural sense of "ends justify the means" when it comes to business ethics.