It's odd for them to go back and forth between claiming that the US lacks the skills required and talking about a Chinese iPhone factory where thousands of workers hand assemble components during a 12-hour shift they suddenly started at midnight. The average factory job is not rocket science and the average factory worker learns what they're supposed to do on the job.
The problem is the ecosystem. Those low-paying slavish jobs support the next layer of skilled middle-class engineers and infrastructure. If there is no manufacturing in the USA there is no need for manufacturing process engineers. As the article said, even material suppliers like Corning have to locate their manufacturing nearby to be responsive to orders and save money on shipping costs.
Right, but it all boils down to having an army of cheap workers in the end. That feeds everything else, because we still don't have manufacturing robots that are as adaptable as humans for cases where you would have to retool your whole line on the fly.
Basically, I think the Chinese have it a lot worse than the US with respect to safety, but that some things are exactly the same in both countries.
I would also note that, right now, it's possible that Foxconn is one of the best factories in China, simply because they're under scrutiny. So on one hand, it's quite possible that someone will be able to point out that they're being unfairly singled out.
On the other hand, conditions are still bad and one might hope that the scrutiny focused on them will force them to improve. Hopefully other companies will follow suit, but I doubt they'll do so without coming under pressure.
