I don't like taiwan or china bikes personally but for me its more of a moral/ethics/philosophical standpoint, I also like to send money exactly where I want to to keep local economies/economies of my choice strong because I believe this will benefit me and people around me that I care about in the long run. If you have no problems with this buy taiwan made.
There political factors that have bicycle manufacturing and manufacturing in general to move offshore. Here are a couple of my pet peeves:
1. High corporate taxes. We have the highest corporate tax rate in the world or close to it. Raising individual taxes is unpopular, so politicians on both sides of the aisle tax businesses. The average voter thinks "it won't affect me." But it does. The taxes are passed in to the consumer in higher costs. And perhaps more significantly, we lose our jobs.
It is more attractive from a return-on-investiment and risk standpoint for an investor to start a company in Tiawan where the corporate tax rate is 18% rather then the US where it is 38%
2. Labor laws and unions. I saw a documentary on the last television factory in the US. Before the plant was closed and production was moved overseas, assemby line workers were making $60/hr. Employees can collaberate and fix labor rates, but employers cannot. In some states workers are forced to pay union dues regardless of their political or religious beliefs. It was great for the employees while it lasted, but now they are getting nothing.
So I am all for supporting the American economy by buying American, when the American product is of equal better quality and priced competitvely. My family all drives American-assembled Ford vehicles (complete with a lot of parts made in Mexico and elsewhere, and an annoying mixture of metric and SAE bolts).
And I love my Lezyne floor pump and all the guys at Lezyne. The pump is of absolute top quality and doesn't cost that much more than a good pump made overseas. I'm guessing there isn't a lot of labor involved what with CNC and all. Anyway, way to go Lezyne and all the other small American bike parts and accessory manufacturers. I hope this is the start of a trend.
But buy American if at all possible regardless of quality or price? No. The problem isn't just greedy businessmen who screw the American worker to make a few extra bucks or a stingy consumers that buy foreign to save a few bucks.
Bottom line, I think people really don't want an economy based on manufacturing, and our policies reflect that. If we decide that yeah, we again want American manufacturing and the jobs it provides, and are also willing to accept the smoke and noise and other unpleasant factors that come with manufacturing, then policy will change and manufacturing will return.