Once upon a time all violins were made in Europe and ideally Italy, then France, then Germany then the UK etc… These days they are made all over the world, but a European instrument still commands a higher price.
Its partly because of the way they are built (by hand), varnished (multiple layers of hand applied lacquer) but also because of the reputation of being the birth place of these instruments. The timber was sourced from slow growing European forest and much prized for their tonal qualities
Now a days most instruments are made in China and while the early instruments of the 1970’s were quite ordinary, now a days there are some fabulous violin makers in China who can command a premium on their work too.
One area where China really excels is in the substrantially lower cost of labour, and given violins are a labour intensive process they can really compete on cost.
So today savvy European western violin makers have cottoned on to this and can out source parts of the violin making, or even all of it, to China and still call their instrument European (see Sander Violin review…made in Germany?). They can do this by shopping their European timbers to China, having them roughed out, (or even finished under supervision of a European maker), before being hand finished by in Europe and then lacquered. Does it matter?…I guess that is in the eye of the buyer. Most reputable violin makers will tell you where the wood is from and where and who did the work on the instruments. You often see a sliding scale in the cost of the violin to reflect this.
So most beginner instruments today are made in China, the better ones will be finished with a traditional lacquer, but the cheap ones will use a spray on “Nitro” finish. It quicker and keeps the cost down. Check out mine here, I have selected these for their sound. It also a more robust finish for beginner instruments too.