After my daughter was born my family sent some items that were hand knitted. 2 hats, a blanket, 2 booties, 2 mittens. Maybe a total of $10.00 USD worth of yarn was used as material, it's rather impossible to calculate the labor of love that goes into hand knitting. The items were declared and the value was claimed as $25.00. Customs decided they liked these things and wanted them for their own child. They assessed a fee of 35% on top of the "perceived value" of $185.00 USD. They must have been hoping we would be willing to forfeit the items. On top of this, they always charge 15-35% tax on the freight charges (depends on mood). So if it cost $25 at FedEx to ship something to China, they assess a random 15-35% tax. So I was looking at $76.00 USD in bullshit charges and lost my shit. After 3 weeks of arguing, I finally relented and paid.

A month or so later my customer sent a piece of test equipment over with a value of roughly $3500. No tax or duty charged at all.

There is no system, it's simply a lottery.

I no longer have anything shipped to China. Instead, I ship it to the country next door called Hong Kong. You know... the one that has the rule of law established by the British. I then carry the items as personal effects along with the non melamine tainted baby formula I buy for 25% less than in China.

Cheers!
ChinaV