They may go hand in hand, but the primary difference is in culture. Americans tend to be perfectionists and idealistic. We are pragmatic in wanting highest quality for the best buck. Chinese peasants don't typically buy many luxury items. They are pragmatic out of necessity.
For a simplistic example: I build bird houses. I do this out of love for birding and the natural world that I watch daily. I build my birdhouses well because I get satisfaction from a job well-done. If I build one for a friend, I am even more inclined to do a good job. I'm perfectionistic in my tendencies, and this is ingrained in me by my culture of a love for the world around me. I have had the luxury of not having to perform slave labor in order to exist. I had the choice of making my life better and the way I want it due to educational opportunities and the idea that my success or failure depends on my drive and my desires. I like excellence- I want to be excellent in my endeavors.
In China, the general population has not been encouraged toward individualism and accomplishment. They are like an ant colony. They work under a heavy governmental hand who tells them how many children they may have with the threat of violence. As an example of how the Chinese manufacturing mind works, I have a friend who is a purchasing manager for a company here who sells fiber-optic cable. They buy parts from a chinese manufacturer who sends X amount of parts per shipment. When my friend's company found that 33% of these parts were defective,, they contacted the Chinese manufacturer whose response was, in effect, "You ordered 1000 parts, you got 1000 parts, we don't guarantee the quality of each of these parts, and we will not replace the defective ones". In other words, you buy it, you're stuck with it". Those Chinese workers don't care about quality. If the government told them they must make quality parts, they might do so because they feared the government, but it wouldn't be because they care about quality. Americans care about quality as a general rule.