Why do people think China will continue to be a cheap place to build things?

I don’t understand why people and companies operating under free market principles put such faith in the idea that China will continue to be a cheap place to produce goods. It makes no logical sense. You shouldn’t have to be an economist to understand this but I’m not one so this is my attempt to figure it out.<br><br>Logically, any country that transitions from a poor place to a rich place has an expanding middle class. In every case in history that that has happened, the standard of living rises and the demand for jobs doing menial labor goes down. The standard of living goes up all the time. This means that as China transitions from a poor country to a rich place, the cost of labor is going to go up because the people living in China start to want better jobs that pay better. It costs more to hire people. So wouldn’t that naturally raise the price of shipping goods being produced there? I don’t see how China will stay a cheap place to build things in the near future. <br><br>Also, I’m an American and I would love to see the US be a good place to build things again. I personally don’t think we can fully dominate manufacturing again, but I wouldn’t mind being able to look at products and see the occasional “Made in USA” disclaimer. I would also like to see the industrial commands of many other countries expand. <br><br>Edit 1: Thanks for the replies. I didn’t expect this to get such attention.