The problem has become less about cheap labor and more about general know how. China simply leads the world in manufacturing know how.
How true is this? Is this financial sleight-of-hand? We assemble the parts after the hard part was already done?
As someone who works in US manufacturing, let me qualify that by saying "There is a lot of know-how in senior citizens in the US". I really cannot overstate how me, a guy in his late 30's, is consistently the youngest engineer by decades when doing site visits.
I just don't know how to get the above into management studies that are taught in business school - there seems to be a lack of interest in long term expertise in those circles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl-1jc1oDRk
(Yes, this video is framed and has Italian subtitles, but all the others I found do weird things with panning and clipping to evade censorship filters, and I believe that his body language is an important part of the delivery.)