My belief is the reason the US is suddenly freaking out about China is
a) China is now creating their own IP. Because of course once you outsource manufacturing all the engineering and technical skill quickly follows. The next generation of products doesn't get designed in the US, it gets designed in China.
b) China being flush with cash is now moving into international finance. You can imagine how well that's going over in the financial centers of the indebted west.
once you outsource manufacturing all the engineering and technical skill quickly follows.
This is obvious to any trained Western engineer who knows that manufacturing is a sophisticated engineering discipline in its own right, and once you master it, the other branches of engineering naturally follow.
Western managers however, believed that the Chinese would be content to do just manufacturing forever, and were incapable of doing design. A classic example of how racism bites you in the arse. Having said that none of those managers will suffer, they've already cashed out.
