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This is completely true. If we were really going for extremely low labor cost we would move this stuff to Thailand, the Philippines or Malaysia. The Chinese literally helped pioneer and develop most of the manufacturing processes used to manufacture smart phones.

Even if it isn't 'cheap' to manufacture there, it is likely far more cost effective in the long-term to maintain that trading relationship, rather than move it somewhere else. And when I say cost effective, I mean it could literally triple the price to make it in the U.S. for the next decade. They'll take double the price if they have to.

The idea of "cheap Chinese labor" is fast becoming an anachronistic myth. Wages in China have gone up massively over the past couple of decades. When adjusted to local costs of living, Chinese factory workers actually end up with more relative spending power than American service industry workers. Additionally, if we want to use liberal lingo, China now has the biggest "middle class" in the world. The reason why China is still the preferred location for manufacturing is because it has all the integrated supply chains, the infrastructure, the automation, and the educated+trained workforce to optimize production and make it more profitable than even places with cheaper labor costs can.

i'm in awe

There's a country that lacked a lot of industrial knowledge and training fifty years ago that invested heavily into enticing foreigners to come and set things up (and also sent a lot of their kids to overseas education to bring that knowledge back home) and that country probably has a lot of people who would come teach us how to work in factories again if we weren't so damn racist.

but have you considered child labour