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> You cannot manufacture microwave ovens, blenders, refrigerators and stoves in the US and Europe because nearly the entire supply chain for these products exists in China.

Things are not quite as bad as that. There are multiple factories of such products in Poland alone. E.g. Electrolux has 5 factories in Poland, which make blow dryers, dishwashers, washers, stove owens and kitchen hoods. Other manufacturers are also present.



Where are the components coming from? I would bet these are assembly plants, far more so than manufacturing facilities. Do they make the motors, wires, chips, circuit boards, metals and coatings, displays, connectors, etc.

It is easy to look at a factory and think "we build this" and then, once you look deeper, you realize that you might only make 30% of it.

There are things that are far more serious than these imbalances. Watching an economic forum presentation on this topic today I learned that China is extracting 600 billion dollars in intellectual property PER YEAR from the west (mostly the US).

In case you are interested, here's the livestream. The China conversation is the second panel, after Jamie Dimon (JP Morgan Chase CEO).

https://www.reaganfoundation.org/events/2025-reagan-national...




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