Klaus
"All at a lower price, of course."
Exactly. Eventually here I'm going to pick up their AF 14mm f/4 to go with wider than the 16-35G. Here in the US the price is on dropping the 14, ~$160US. I can't see spending the $$$$$ on one of the 12-24 variants.
"I think China has beaten "the West" (& Japan) by quite a margin when it comes to manufacturing. We are entering the Chinese century now - I have no doubts."
I spent from the early 2k to about 2010 visiting Chinese semiconductor plants. These were all first rate world class manufacturing sites. Moreover, many of the engineers you would meet were Phds from top US schools and were head of R&D at Intels or AMDs. Then repatriated because their parents were getting old. Their kids are still in the US. So I fully agree. Even back then the lower end goods were being sent to other emerging countries.
It's funny that on my first trip people working on the roads were wearing rags and riding bicycles at the construction site. By my last trip they were driving John Deere's, wearing steel toed shoes and hard hat helmets. Moreover, I'd be passing things like the F1 circuit on the way to site.
