The excuse often thrown around in Aus for becoming economically dependent on China is 'we can't compete with their cheap labor'. Although that may have been partially true (though you could still apply tariffs & subsidies to balance it up, if you wanted to), it's becoming irrelevant now as the photo below shows.

The modern factories in China do not run on sweat-shop labor - instead they are world leading in terms of robo-assembly.

This is one of those things (like drones, all things AI) that's not a passing fad, it's only going to get bigger. Either get with it in the manufacturing sector, or get left behind.