Just to address one point: "Why would a company suddenly move production from a country like Germany to China?"
Supply chain costs, and operational efficiency. One of the biggest operational expense in making cars is supply chain logistics. The industry - following Toyota's lead - has been shifting, for many years now, to a just-in-time supply chain model, keeping minimum on-site stock. This in turn increases logistical demands on so-called "Tier 1" suppliers - the Valeo, TRW, Bosch, VDO, NGKs of this world. Long-term it is cheaper for them to move their own manufacturing plants close to their largest customers or markets, than to ship a majority of their output all over the globe all the time, dealing with unpredictable weather, natural disasters, conflicts, industrial actions and what not. And often the pressure to move comes from the customer themselves! And yes, sometimes they move just close enough to solve the logistics problem, but far enough to avail of cheaper labour - hence Mexico v. USA.
But there really is more to it than just skimping on labour costs, or not caring about quality.
Guess which country produced just shy of 30% of the entire global car output since - according to online data - at least 2009? China.
Combined with India, which is just around the corner, that number is closer to 35%. We're talking about two rapidly growing markets, with ~2.7 billion potential customers.
"Why would a company suddenly move production from a country like Germany to China?" - from a business perspective, isn't this reason enough?
Last, but not least, here's a shocker: N000000001061 - instrument cluster bulb - an MB re-packaged part, mass-produced in China / Thailand and sold at nearly 20x premium by your local dealer.