it's not so much about the china forklift industy as it is about most corporations now are farming out thier labor to china. That is a well known fact. When corporations bid for labor costs they always tend to go to the lowest bidder. Seems china is the lucky winner at the moment. You can rest assured if another country came up with lower labor cost china would loose it to them.
Build em cheaper, and charge more for it is the motto these days unfortunately. Quality control and material craftsmanship is out the window. And it's not just the forklift industry, it's all across the board on just about anything consumers buy these days.
I will say that toyota does price thier machines pretty low compared to other brands but they do make up for it when it comes to repair costs and parts pricing.