Someday Foxconn will figure out how to do without Apple in phones.
The US didn't "lose" that, it gave it away for the low wage manufacturing and thus increased profit margins. Putting the blame for this on China, like the US would act any differently if the roles were reversed, is imho quite hypocrite.
Just like the US also ain't above using its global military and intelligence dominance for some good old industrial espionage. [0]
I'm also pretty sure plenty of Chinese have figured out how to do without Apple [1].
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON#Examples_of_industrial...
I have heard that some forms of Chinese protectionism are a little more subtle: apparently, the government requires foreign companies manufacturing in China to buy batteries from the domestic Chinese battery industry. Only Chinese companies can buy from the (better, cheaper) foreign companies. I don't remember where I read this though.
The way to develop a powerful industry is protectionism. When you have achieved it, the way to avoid others develop powerful industries is free trade.
It was not by way of free trade that the USA, Germany or Japan developed.
Here's one example. Chinese consumers use Alibaba, not Amazon. They use QQ, not Twitter. They use Baidu, not Google. In all of those cases, the foreign brands are higher quality products.
Samsung is the closest match.
While I don't like Intel, I really fear that they'll decide to stop progressing and will continue to use 14nm while they still can squeeze any profits. Those tiny processes require tremendous investments and it's unlikely that new players will appear there, at least old ones should survive and compete.
- Intel: CPUs
- Samsung: Memory
- TSMC: Foundry (make chips that others design)