The United States constantly blames China for their own bad policy choices, going back years. Now they are promising US citizens they are going to fix the situation by returning manufacturing back to the United States. This is not going to happen.
The manufacturing age is past and long gone. China took full advantage of the manufacturing age when the US corporations started outsourcing jobs to other countries in exchange for cheap labor and to avoid paying living wages to US workers.
American manufacturers began shifting production to Mexico in the 1980s (due to NAFTA’s precursor, maquiladora programs) and Southeast Asia (e.g., Taiwan, South Korea). Maquiladoras (or “maquilas”) are foreign-owned factories in Mexico that import materials duty-free, assemble or manufacture goods, and then export the finished products—mostly to the U.S. The goal was to create jobs in Mexico while giving U.S. companies access to cheap labor without heavy tariffs. Maquiladoras helped U.S. companies cut labor costs but contributed to American job losses.
In 1994, NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) made it easier for companies to move factories to Mexico. In 2000, the Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China and China’s WTO entry (2001) led to a massive surge in offshoring to China. Companies like Apple, Nike, and Walmart heavily outsourced production to China and other low-wage countries.
Peak Offshoring began in 2000s–2010s, when millions of U.S. manufacturing jobs were lost, particularly in textiles, electronics, and automotive sectors. Studies estimate that 2–3 million U.S. jobs were lost to China alone between 1999 and 2011 (Economic Policy Institute).
The offshoring of American jobs to China and other countries driven by globalization, trade liberalization, and corporate cost-cutting strategies, is a trend that continues today, though automation and reshoring efforts have slightly altered the landscape.
Both Republicans and Democrats contributed to this policy by direction of the wealthy. Trump/Biden tariffs and U.S.-China trade wars slowed but did not reverse offshoring trends, which is why manufacturing will not return to the US any time soon. However, now this administration is living a lie and convincing Americans that bringing jobs back will make the American workforce great again; a new Golden Age.
Unfortunately, the world is facing robotics, AI, and automated systems that are replacing humans in the workforce. Unless the US build schools that train workers in those fields, this country will never catch up to the rest of the world technologically. The brains of Americans have been convinced to vote against their own interest and in favor of the very people who have betrayed and exploited them for years; corporations and the wealthy.
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