And, more importantly, minimal (environmental) regulations. Cheap labour is great. But not having to worry about the disposal of waste, or the air pollution you generate is even better.

When China has smog issue many in the West point and wave fingers. The truth is, that pollution is The West's. We're just too naive to admit it.

By that logic, pollution in the US is also the property of all the countries that the US sells to. That pollution in Flint Michigan is the rest of the world's fault because they buy US cars.

Fault? That's not the right word.

Regardless, the point is, China's env regs are MUCH more lax. So chances are good Product X made in the USA was made with less pollution than the same product made in China.

Yes, pollution is a shared "resources." But some countries are less concerned than others. China is one of those coutries.

If we cut off China from world trade in order to reduce Chinese smog, we'd be condemning factory workers to go back to subsistence farming and a worse life overall.

I'm not even close to suggesting that. I'm only pointing out that the conventional wisdom is biz goes to China for cheap labor. That's barely half of it. It's the lack of reg - esp environmental - that's the draw.

The "bonus" is, politicians in the West can claim they cleaned things up at home. Lol. Oh hell no. When the jobs left, so did the (direct) pollution.

Plenty of places offer cheaper labor than China. It's more about the quality of their work, although relatively cheap labor is obviously part of the equation.

Also infrastructure and supply lines are important. It is difficult to replace China because their value proposition isn’t just cheap labor.

There are a lot competing interests from the west about China:

Some (Walmart, Apple, HP, Dell) want it as cheap workforce.

Other (Boeing Airbus, GM), want to sell things there.

Some in academy/press wish China can be democratic society.

Some in Military would like to see a strong opponent for another cold war style military build up.

China was able to see all them and sail / leverage along all the competing interests for their own benefits in the last 30 years.

Cheap workforce with little consideration of the freedoms of the workers making the products. Like with C02, we've never wanted to confront the reality that we have negative externalities that aren't being priced into the product.