Economists believe aggressive automation may help explain why China has defied the typical development trajectory of losing low-end manufacturing as wages rise. Trade data compiled by Harvard’s Growth Lab shows China grew its global export share in a swath of labour-intensive industries from 2019 to 2023. The country’s global export share of small manufactured goods, such as brooms, mops and pens, rose 9 percentage points to 52.3 per cent over the four-year period. Furniture exports gained about 1.5 percentage points of market share, while China’s proportion of the world’s toy exports rose from 54.3 per cent to 56.9 per cent.
This comes even as the average factory worker in Dongguan makes about Rmb5,200 ($729) a month while an Indian counterpart may earn Rs17,100 ($194), according to government statistics in both places. “It’s quite striking,” said Leah Fahy, China economist at Capital Economics. “Historically, as countries develop, labour costs rise and they move away from producing these goods.”