Article about Chinese tires ... For what its worth

If it's like other Chinese products, they're already doing it... What happens in China is the product gets prototyped and signed off. Then it goes into production. Somewhere in China, somebody substitutes a lower cost material and pockets the difference (remember Melamine in powdered milk, it raised the number they needed for the lab test) chances are somewhere somebody has already been using the new rubber formula, now its just okay to do it.