CHINA IS NOT A VENDOR LIST. IT IS A LANGUAGE.

I lived and worked in Shanghai for 13 years. I still work the same way: fly there, stand in the factory, hold the sample, and ask the questions that email cannot ask.

Sourcing in China and Vietnam means samples, QC, freight, customs and compliance: CE, REACH, RoHS. And it means knowing which mistake kills a project and which one is just expensive.

Vietnam is the second source, not the backup plan. Two countries, two cost structures, two sets of risks, one plan.

Email-only sourcing fails for a simple reason: a supplier who has never seen you in the room is a supplier with a queue, and you are not at the front of it.