I suspect that the falling rate of interest is the primary cause.
The falling interest rate on house loans makes houses increasingly expensive, as potential home owners can afford more expensive houses (given the same income) the less they have to pay in interest. The same principle ought to apply to companies who buy factories for manufacturing, with the primary difference being that housing cannot be outsourced while manufacturing can.
This hypothesis could be substantiated by looking at the degree to which countries with a long term falling interest rate outsource to countries with a long term stable or rising interest rate, and vice versa.
Foxconn's million+ workers do theoretically have a union, but only since 2007, and with actually elected leaders only since 2013. At that time they still faced the issue that most workers didn't know they were meant to elect a union representative at all and the union committee leaders were all managers. What little workers rights exist come mostly due to pressure from Apple and American unions.
And of course, as China is getting richer and the workers are starting to slowly come to resemble western workforces, companies are relocating to Vietnam.
A Taiwanese silicon engineer salary, even the top band is probably only higher than the entry level of a web developer in SF.
Something is definitely wrong