The phrase “made in China” is rarely a selling point in America. It’s even more rare to apply it to vehicles from American automakers. Until now.

Venture into a Buick, Cadillac or a Ford showroom (by 2019), and uncover Chinese-built vehicles such as Buick Envision, Cadillac CT-6 plug-in hybrid or the next Ford Focus. After more than a decade of stalled starts, the Chinese brands are coming, too. Does anybody care? Should they?

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In 2009, China became the largest auto market in the world, capturing over 20 percent global market share and almost 34 percent of total passenger car production, according to Statista.com. It influences what automakers do and how they do it.

Volvo, the venerable Swedish brand owned by the Chinese multinational automotive company Geely, was the first automaker to export from China to the U.S. with the S60 Inscription in 2015. Except for an assembly plate in the doorjam, you never would know. It worked so well Volvo opened an assembly plant in Charleston, South Carolina on June 20. The plant will produce the sleek new S60 sedan initially, and according to Automotive News, the XC90 crossover by 2021. This marks the first time a Chinese-owned automaker assembled cars in the U.S.

Geely itself was the first Chinese automaker to announce plans to sell vehicles in the U.S. during the 2006 Detroit auto show, but nobody imagined Volvo being its spearhead. Volvo was owned by Ford until 2010. Geely has been strategic in leveraging Volvo as an engineering center to improve its own models. Geely and Volvo are even co-developing a new line of vehicles branded “Lynk & Co”, launching here with the “01” crossover in 2020.

Buick’s path from Detroit to Shanghai and back is more circuitous. According to official GM history, Buicks were prestige cars in the early 20th Century and driven by Sun Yat-sen, the founding father of the Republic of China and its first provisional president, Zhou Enlai, who became China’s premier, and Pu Yi, the last emperor of China. According to legend, two of Pu Yi’s Buicks were the first cars to enter the Forbidden City in Beijing.

It was a status symbol, so GM’s partner, SAIC, the state-owned automaker based in Shanghai, wanted to consummate their relationship with Buick. In 1995, they agreed to build a new factory to assemble the Century and GL8 minivan that’s only for the Chinese market. Today, about five times as many Buicks are sold in China as the U.S. Some, like the popular Envision crossover, return home. And for good reason. Buick imported 40,040 Envisions in 2017 plus 16,814 in the first half of 2018, making it the brand’s third-most-popular model.

“The vehicle was originally developed for the Chinese market, but it was a nice fit for the U.S.,” said one of the Buick representatives onhand at its unveiling at the 2016 Detroit Auto Show. “We weren’t going to tool an additional factory, so it was from China or not at all. We believe most owners won’t care where it is built as long as it fits their needs.”

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Surveys seem to support that statement.

According to a study by Autolist.com, under a third of U.S. consumers say a vehicle being built in China would affect their purchasing decision while 49 percent say it would have no impact. Those concerned cite build quality, U.S. jobs, and reliability as reasons. Of course, this is complicated by tariffs that could raise from the current 2.5 percent to 25 percent if President Trump carries through on threats.

“If, in the event of higher tariffs, the Chinese cannot export directly from their factories at home, they may decide to assemble vehicles in the U.S., just as the Japanese and Koreans and Germans have done with transplants,” said Michael J. Dunne, automotive consultant and author of “American Wheels, Chinese Roads.”

They may do that, but the Chinese won’t just accept tariffs without a reaction.

“The problem is the retaliatory effect,” said Dr. Roberto Garcia, professor of international business at Indiana University. “Toyota and Honda could increase investment, but they also do this to export. If automakers see a trade war looming, it will impact U.S. investment and employment. Long-term decisions are being impacted. Volvo…has production in the U.S., but that doesn’t all stay in the U.S. Some goes back to China.”

That should matter to car buyers.

“The investments, suppliers, jobs, and tax revenue all flow to and remain in China,” Dunne said.

The tariff issue also complicates free market capitalism and consumer choice. In early August, GM asked the Trump administration for a tariff exemption on the Envision, otherwise it may pull it from the U.S. market.

China has ceded some ground. It requires auto assemblers to be at least 50 percent domestically owned, but has agreed to phase out the requirement by 2020.

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China is good for automakers. GM and its partners had the best-selling car in China last year: the Wuling Hong Guang minivan sold 533,950 units. GM alliances sold five of the top 15 vehicles; Volkswagen sold three. Only six of the top fifteen were from domestic automakers Geely, Great Wall, and Guangzhou Automotive Corp (GAC).

We’ll soon lean how consumers feel about buying Chinese-branded imports. GAC, with global sales of 510,000 vehicles in 2017, will begin selling a 7-passenger crossover called the G8 in late 2019. FAW Group, one of China’s largest automakers, plans to debut the Guyon electric vehicle, with a 310- to 434-mile range, in 2019. BYD, which builds electric busses in California and is backed by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, will likely follow.

Beyond tariffs, the big question is if Chinese automakers are ready to play on the big American stage.

“Chinese quality is quickly closing in on that of global automakers,” Dunne said. “They still need to work on details – fit and finish, ride, handling, and emissions.”

If successful, others will follow, but they’ll face time-honored challenges.

“Let’s say there is a backing down of tariffs and this all becomes bluster,” Garcia said. “Then, the Chinese would have to do what the Koreans and Japanese did before them. They have to introduce vehicles with unique features or lower prices. They would have to methodically build up dealer networks.”

None of this will be easy. Chinese vehicles must meet federal safety and fuel economy regulations. It took Asian automakers decades to become competitive, but partnering with Western automakers like Geely with Volvo should expedite success.

“In twenty years, if unusual barriers go away, we can expect a slow long-term introduction to the U.S. market,” Garcia said. “I remember in the 1980s, in an attempt to repel Japan, when ‘Made In America’ was put on cars, consumers still made decisions with the most economic benefit to them.”

Casey Williams is a freelance writer.

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