Great essay. Making is a movement in America, because it isn't a necessity. In China, repairing things instead of throwing them away is the norm. So there are large numbers of Makers in every town, who honed their skills in electronics repair.

When robots bring down the cost of new goods to the point where it no longer makes sense to repair things--because they are so cheap to replace--China will lose its Makers just as America did.

And then they'll have a Maker movement.