Its hard to compare knives from China to US made or world made and use materials as the common ground. Labor, wages play into why they are less money. Not wanting to get political but its not comparable at all.
Too many cloned products from that place. Its a joke.
My reasons for not buying China-made are
entirely political. If I were to strip all political considerations from my decision to not buy Chinese knives, my position becomes a lot more difficult to support. Some folks don't give a tinker's damn how their sausage is made... well, that's their mileage, I reckon.
Thanks to all for contributing to this discussion! Good points made on several fronts that have made me ponder some...

I'm still going to defend the 040 Onset and applaud Buck for their efforts. Good design and worth the money, IMO. YMMV.
I think that there would be more excitement about the 040 Onset if Buck had gone with titanium. This would undoubtedly further increase the price (perhaps into Kai's Zero Tolerance territory--it's already teetering) but I don't believe it would increase the strength or performance of the knife itself (Buck milled a lot of steel out of the 040's framelock.) Could Buck compete with ZT in the modern folder class? I have my reservations, to say the least.
In my view, two of the most prominent advantages of titanium over steel are: strength-to-weight ratio and corrosion resistance. The first is an excellent reason for manufacturers to choose titanium for a thicker framelock design, and perhaps a good reason to choose steel for a thinner linerlock (where weight is more negligible.) I love my Emersons but EKI is guilty of this; choosing ti over steel for their thin linerlocks. Not much advantage, but people want titanium. And how many makers are going with steel lockbar inserts on their ti framelocks? Anyway, I digress.
Love it, hate it, or indifferent... the Onset is something different from Buck's usual lineup.

