On the matter of Asian guitars: Years ago at Chetfest (that is the annual CAAS convention), I had dinner with the Gibson manager who was in charge of setting up the company's China operation for a new Epiphone flat-top acoustic line. He told me that the Chinese were capable of producing whatever level of quality was asked for, and that it could all be specified in the contract with the participating factory--you contract for X, you get X. And the samples he had at the convention were very decent guitars for their price points. One might have doubts about Chinese labor practices or environmental policies, but there's nothing wrong with their industrial abilities.
As for Eastman, it was originally a violin-family factory, with a very experienced workforce of traditional craftsmen. Their entry into the guitar market was with acoustic archtops, which use a similar skill-set, and their models seem to have been classic Epiphones. I discovered them more than a decade ago and was quite impressed, despite their unconventional appearance--they finished them the way they did violins, so they lacked the shiny-smooth look of American guitars. Nevertheless, they sounded like old Epis (and better than most of the old Gibsons I'd played). They realized the marketing/aesthetic error of the fiddle-finish (which didn't hurt the sound at all) and the line took off. I bought the first one that my wallet, hands, and ears agreed was a match for my '46 Broadway, and it has alternated with the Epi as a main play-out archtop ever since.