China is far from first world. They have modern cities, but their GDP is less than $5000/year pp. They employ slave child labor to make your cheap plastic shit. They work 14 hour days. It sucks.
>They make high-end electronics, they make industrial equipment, [...] and manned spacecraft. //
Are you saying they don't employ minors in China at poverty wages in the manufacture of "cheap plastic shit"?
That would be news to me.