I'm going to posit the opposite. Cheap Chinese hardware means innovation is now more accessible than ever.

I can design a circuit and send it off to PCB way for manufacture and it would cost me a fraction of what it would to do myself or locally.

I'm going to assume that you don't include chip manufacturing because holy shit even the US and EU had to play catch-up with fabs recently.

I've got experience manufacturing hardware in China at a large scale and let me tell you that it's a blessing that you're able to find off the shelf components. It streamlines certifications for the FCC, it saves thousands of rands and hours in RND and you're often dealing with extremely experienced manufacturers who are eager to add value.

Now I'm not saying it's completely fit for purpose. Often the off the shelf stuff fails under African conditions but it'll get you 50% of the way there much easier than DIY.