Comment by s1mon

I came here to say something like this. I've worked in product development in the Bay Area for 30+ years and brought numerous products to market, mostly manufactured in China. There's nothing like the density and ability of manufacturing that's in China (and more broadly in other parts of Asia). In the US I've worked with great molders and toolers, PCB fab, machine shops, CMs, etc. but the ability to turn on a dime and get stuff done quickly in southern China is insane. In the Bay Area you see billboards for esoteric SaaS products and credit cards for startups, in parts of China, they are for molding machines and CNC tools. You drive by rows of roll up doors in the base of apartment blocks and each stall/shop is filled with bar stock, plastic pellets, CNC machines, injection molding machines, etc.

You'll also see people doing complex repairs of mobile phones sitting on a stool on the sidewalk. The level of skill and access to tools/spare parts that is endemic there is completely different than the US.