this post was submitted on 21 Aug 2025
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So, global trade economics 101: When you have a country that needs things they can't produce from more advanced countries, and if conditions are right to start setting up basic factories to export from, it's very favoured to do so. Basically, they need some way to get foreign currency to make those high-tech purchases. This manifests as cheap exports and "cheap labour".
China is huge, wasn't making much other than traditional agricultural products in 1950, and then after Mao died moved to a system that could support businesses for export.
Even today, everything isn't made in China, exactly. They mostly import, say, airliners from the West. Over time, they're moving into higher and higher end products, and are actually leaving the really low end to Bangladesh and Vietnam at this point, but they started with the easy stuff. It just so happens that a lot of mass consumer products are on the easier end.