This is what always struck me as so short-sighted about Western corporations offshoring their manufacturing. Japan and the Asian Tigers proved that it's possible for nations to successfully climb the value chain, starting off by doing low-skilled work and then using the experience gained from that to gradually take over more and more of the overall product development process. China is just taking that approach and applying it at a larger scale than anyone has ever done before.

When a company like Apple contracts out its manufacturing to a Chinese firm, it's betting that Apple will always be able to produce better design and marketing than that Chinese firm can. But based on history, that doesn't strike me as a very good bet. Eventually the Chinese firm will climb high enough on the value chain where they don't need Apple's designers and marketers to make objects that sell anymore. The Western companies are training their own replacements.