China Manufacturing Advantages

Most people seem to be focusing narrowly on wages and worker conditions, which is not the main point of the article-- even if you take wages out of the equation, China is now much better positioned for production. The whole supply chain is nearby-- vast majority of high-tech electronics are made in asia (Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia etc), everything else in China itself. To make even one component in the US would require shipping it to China for assembly, which would introduce a lead time of weeks, w

As hard as it would be for China to build their own Silicon Valley and put Apple, Google and Microsoft out of business. People think that Chinese manufacturing is simply a bunch of low paid workers in factories performing repetitive tasks, and the whole thing could be easily replicated in the US if not for labor costs. In reality there is an entire ecosystem of complex supply chains, very high skilled workers and the most advanced industrial machinery on the planet making it what it is. We simpl

Ehh... No.Because they would have nowhere to move to.First... China has a humongous work force, which solely on numbers no other country can compete with, you need whole continents to get the same mass of workforce.Second, in comparison to the rest of the BRIC competitors - Chinese workforce is relatively homogenous, well educated and most importantly of all they have a work ethic (Brazil? Hahahahah).Third, low price is not the sole reason why stuff is produced in China (Go read why

Currently Chinese are competitive because because developers work on burnout level intensity and workers have no life but factory around the clock.Of course, the salaries and working conditions are going up in China while west is eroding worker rights as fast as we can. One the factories will come back here simply because we'll end up cheaper. Don't buy solar made by Xinjiang forced labor, by solar panels made by illegal immigrant prison labor!

The idea that companies manufacture in china because of the cheap labor is misleading. Factory labor in China is not significantly cheaper than other countries. The benefit of China is the supply chain. The availablity of parts, factories, and labor is astonishing. There is no where else like it. There are entire cities devoted to manufacturing.

doesnt matter how much Chinese want , china is an infinite source of cheap labour. And you forget something, you cant freely work where you want in China. You cant just quit your job and find another one, you need an authorisation to do so. Some forget that China is still a centralized communist country.Their economy is still highly planified and there is no difference between government and "private" sector. they are the same entity.

China is not about cheap labor, most manufacturer love to put up factory there because they have access to almost all raw materials for their products. That's the hardest part to move to another country all the logistics and supply chains.

Manufacturing in China uses large numbers of human beings because labor is cheap there. Manufacturing in the USA strives to use minimal human involvement through automation because of the high cost of labor there. Companies moving production of goods back to the United States will not necessarily add a significant amount of jobs.

Interesting that when I was living in China, I could not buy there things manufactured in China!!I had to go to US or Europe in order to buy them and them move again to China with it because most factories directly export what they manufacture.Automating something in the US or Europe is probably cheaper than in China because of the educated people there is much better prepared than in China.The huge difference is in basic commodities cost. China is so huge and dense(great basic markets)

No, China is running into a labor shortage. 18-year-olds are getting relatively thin on the ground, for both demographic reasons (one child was ~25 years ago), and because immigration from rural to urban areas has undergone an inflection. Factory workers in a good area can thus get very high (by Chinese standards) wages. Food prices are also going up. They won't admit that inflation is out of control, but it is. Factories are moving inland, or to Vietnam or India. China is looking at Africa, in