[Arran]

Mike;
Foxconn products function well,at least for the short term, because they are partnered with a U.S company, but the no name export stuff often is trash from the get go. Some would differ with you on Apple products, some consider it overpriced garbage from brand new, which is likely based on personal bias against Apple itself, but I digress.
None the less I'm not sure whether you could use the fact that Foxconn (Hon Hai) manufactures for Apple is a good measure of product quality since the majority of Apple products are marketed as fashion accessories intended to be replaced or traded in within a few years for the latest and greatest model. My definition of whether something is trash can bound or not is whether it lasts more then five years, which is something that many China made goods are incapable of. This does not mean that they won't last five or six of course, but is there anyone out there that uses an Iphone I or II anymore? If you look at their company website they are actually a Taiwanese company, not a China state owned company, so that may explain why Apple, Dell, and some others deal with them. But then again so is Lelon and they make lousy capacitors.

http://www.foxconn.com/

As for Huawai, that company is run by a retired general from the Chinese People's Liberation Army, therefore he is a party insider. So they can pretty much infringe on any other company's patents without consequence, and get whatever financing they want from a China state bank. Unlike a Taiwan based company it's just about impossible to sue a company with party connections in China, there are no independent courts. I won't comment on the quality of their products but since they don't have to invest much in R&D it's possible that they may throw more into better materials and quality control, though I would not hang my hat on it.
No doubt the one making these cheap halogen light transformers is made by a similar sort of company, though one of a lower standing then Huawai, no doubt using stolen designs. The same sort of outfits also pedal crap electrolytic capacitors, the more honest ones have some mystery brand printed on them, the dishonest ones sell outright counterfeits. This was in part responsible for the capacitor plague between 2004-06. This is why you can't really trust the specs that they mark on products with these direct from China sales, I've even heard of them selling counterfeit LM317s when the real ones are $.50 each!
I have noticed that unlike many American firms many of the Japanese ones often go out of their way to avoid manufacturing their products in China, they seem to prefer Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and even Thailand over China. I think that the intellectual property theft may be part of the reason but I'm sure that quality control and the lack of independent courts may also weigh in. I think as time goes by you will see more and more electronics come from India as well, which would definitely be an improvement.
Regards
Arran

P.S GFIs and light dimmers fail all the time, though they don't usually fail in a shower of sparks, they just stop working or make lots of RF noise.