Hi Dave,
Please don't despair. The production facility in China belongs to us (KEF).
Every aspect of design, development and acoustic research/balancing is done here at Maidstone. We still believe in creating the products here but merely assembling them in China.
For us to produce the "Q" series here in the UK, would mean almost doubling the RRP. By assembling them in China, we can keep transfer and retail costs down, and more importantly, a saving for you, our customers. Labour here in the UK is very expensive (as you are probably aware), and the sheer volumes of product we produce would mean that we would need a factory the size of Boeing's to accomodate all the production lines.
So, anything KEF is still very much a British product, from the initial industrial design, through to sitting on your living room floor reproducing your favourite tunes. The only difference is, our Chinese colleagues have carefully prepared them for you.
Hope this calms your fears......
Best Regards