1. A CFL has a bunch of electronic components inside it.
2. CFLs are all made in China, from Chinese components.
3. China OEMs and component makers are notorious for cheaping their products to the Nth degree. Their cheapness accounts for much of the component burnout in CFLs.
Importers have well-defined quality standards, but it's really hard to hold such distant suppliers to them. The traditional way for high-quality brands is to set up their own factories in which they can put all the stringent standards in place at the point of origin.
Maybe as Chinese industry matures, you will be able to get quality on a job-shop basis--as long as you know which shops to use.
Not true. There are manufacturers of CFL's all over the world, including the US. It is certainly possible to find CFL's not made in China. Go to your local Ace Hardware and read some package labels (which is what I did). Or get bulbs through your local electric utility, they typically provide a better quality CFL (got some "freebies" which are still in service after quite few years).