You're very very wrong. When you type a little part of me feels sad.

Lumping China and Taiwan together is like lumping Mexico and the US together. In both situations they used to both be one country and a ton of stuff is made in both places but you'd have to be a blind fool to think that they posses the same technological and industrial histories or capabilities.

As for carbon - the industrialists of Taiwan are the masters of carbon fiber and were the ones that developed the best layup, molding, resins, processes, etc. It's the US carbon makers that are more of the "startups" that had to "learn the hard way" - Zipp and EDGE come to mind.

OP - in general this is how things are done in this industry. I myself import carbon rims for some of the wheels I make. I also sometimes import hubs. They come from Taiwan. Not China. Does this fact mean that my wheels are somehow not based in the experience and knowledge I have gained from my years of racing?

Having worked with a "bicycle company" that matches what the OP is referring to I can tell you that the 2 guys doing it still put a ton of time and effort "designing" the geometry they want, aligning the component mix they want, and tweaking and tuning everything once it's stateside. In the OP's example this means that the taiwan and chinese factories are simply the "welder". What we neglected to mention was that in the old days the frame was still only as good as the welder was. Der.