Why Are All Our Jobs in China—If They're Supposed to Be the "Enemy"?

🏭 From Partners to Dependents: How U.S. Jobs Ended Up in China

The irony of modern U.S.–China tensions is that American corporations helped build the very system they now fear. Back in the 1970s, China began cautiously opening its economy to global trade under Deng Xiaoping’s reforms. By the 1980s, U.S. leaders—including Ronald Reagan—were advocating for freer markets and fewer trade barriers, laying the groundwork for U.S. companies to outsource labor. Reagan’s push for deregulation and globalization, combined with China's low labor costs, created a perfect storm for offshoring. In the '90s, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and China's push for entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001 sealed the deal. U.S. manufacturing jobs began disappearing—we lost over 5 million of them between 2000 and 2010 alone, while China’s exports boomed.

The shift didn’t just impact factories—it transformed the U.S. economy. We went from being a producer society to a consumer society. Once known for Detroit steel and Midwest assembly lines, we started importing everything from clothes to appliances. Retail giants like Walmart and Target thrived off cheap Chinese goods, and American consumers got hooked on affordability, convenience, and quantity. The middle class shrank, and wealth concentrated in the hands of corporations that traded domestic workers for foreign factories.

📱 China Becomes the World's Factory—Especially for Tech

By the early 2000s, China's role in global manufacturing exploded. It became the world’s largest exporter by 2009 and the go-to country for electronics production. The iPhone, one of the most iconic American tech products, is made in China through supply chains run by Foxconn and Pegatron. These aren’t just simple factories—China built advanced infrastructure to support mass production at a scale the U.S. couldn't match. Intel, Apple, Dell, and countless other tech firms relied on China not just for cheap labor, but for speed, flexibility, and specialized skill.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, this dependence was thrown into the spotlight. 80% of U.S. antibiotics and 90% of active pharmaceutical ingredients were sourced from China, along with a majority of medical masks, semiconductors, and electronics. The supply chain disruptions showed how fragile our reliance had become—yet rebuilding those capabilities back home isn't as simple as flipping a switch.

⚔️ A Cold War of Economics: How Tensions With China Escalated

Fast-forward to today, and the U.S. and China are entangled in a complex economic cold war. The tension didn’t appear overnight. It’s been brewing through intellectual property disputes, concerns about espionage (like the TikTok ban debate), and military posturing in Taiwan and the South China Sea. The Trump administration escalated things in 2018 with a sweeping series of tariffs on $350 billion worth of Chinese goods, aiming to reduce reliance and punish unfair trade practices. China responded in kind.

But here’s the catch: American companies still heavily rely on China. We may be publicly sparring, but the economic codependency remains. And now, everyday Americans are paying the price—not just in geopolitical fear, but in higher costs for basic goods. Isn't Communism the enemy? Why are we relying on it for our economy then?

🧨 Did We Strengthen Our "Enemy"? The Treason Question

The idea that U.S. companies knew China could become a threat—and still shipped jobs there—isn’t conspiracy theory, it’s historical reality. Executives prioritized short-term profits over long-term national security. In doing so, they transferred wealth, technology, and economic leverage to a country now considered our top rival. Some have called it economic treason, and while that may sound extreme, it's worth asking: Would we have tolerated this during the Cold War with the Soviet Union?

There's a historical parallel here: the U.S. famously trained and funded the Mujahideen in the 1980s to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan. Years later, some of those fighters morphed into what became the Taliban and al-Qaeda. It's a repeating pattern: we build up allies or assets without understanding the long-term consequences. In the case of China, we didn’t just empower a future rival—we built our economy around them.

🧱 The High Cost of Rebuilding What We Gave Away

Bringing manufacturing back to the U.S. sounds good on paper, but the reality is daunting- despite what President Trump has to say today. Decades of outsourcing have left us with weakened infrastructure, a diminished skilled workforce, and far higher labor costs. Building factories isn't just expensive—it takes time. And most younger Americans don’t see factory jobs as desirable, creating a cultural gap in addition to the economic one.

Meanwhile, tariffs meant to punish China have backfired on U.S. consumers. According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, Trump's tariffs cost the average U.S. household $1,277 per year in added expenses. We’re now in a paradox: bringing jobs back will be expensive and slow, but continuing reliance on China keeps us vulnerable.

🔧 What Comes Next—and What Gen Z Needs to Know

The path forward won’t be easy, but it is possible. First, we need investment in manufacturing education and training, especially in clean energy, robotics, and microelectronics. We can’t rebuild steel mills overnight, but we can prepare the next generation to compete in industries that matter. Second, policymakers must crack down on corporate outsourcing, offering tax incentives for domestic production and punishing companies that sell out national interests.

And finally, Gen Z must be more than just consumers—they must become critics, voters, and builders. That means demanding transparency in supply chains, supporting local production when possible, and pushing political leaders to stop corporate appeasement. We can’t undo what’s been done, but we can decide how the next chapter is written—one that doesn’t repeat the mistake of feeding power to the very nations we fear.