Quality control is a LOT lower in China than in the US, and that's even considering the US's bias towards industry in its legislation. This is why chinese electronics catch fire a lot more (than Japanese ones, for example, too).
There's a huge amout of corruption, and almost no regulation.
This is definitely true. I have a friend that runs a corporation that does a significant amount of manufacturing in China. His company is known for extremely high Quality.
He has told me that he does need to hire a lot of folks to ride herd on production; more than in other places, though (he has had many places that run his production).
If he does that, he finds they do an excellent job.
There's a huge amout of corruption, and almost no regulation.