I have some thoughts on this I’ll post as a comment. But basically the predictions of their re-shoring being a total bust were nonsense. It doesn’t matter at the end of the day if their efficiency is only 80% of that of their fabs on the island, if it’s enough to be part of what supplies the entire west with all they need for laptops and smartphones and gaming consoles then it’s enough to no longer need that occupied part of China or care what their actions taken against China result in as far as consequences.
A couple of things come to mind with this. Firstly, this reshoring has required a colossal subvention by the state. The money printer can currently go brr all day long, but if every reshoring that was needed required such intervention then this would not be feasible, especially considering the balancing act that’s currently needed to counter inflation. Dedollarisation that’s continuing apace further threatens this model. Already we have Trump recently threatening states that plan to trade in non-dollar currencies.
The reason for the deindustrialisation in the first place has not gone away. The inevitable march towards the export of finance capital being of primary importance to the imperialist state will inevitably continue. This seems to be a panicky flagship example. Root causes have not been addressed, and won’t be.
But at the same time I do take your point that we’re probably overstating the situation. I hope not by much.