Well, this is just a WHACK-O THEORY; and nothing more--except the July 25th issue of the Economist lends credence to it.
It details how the big corporations and their industries are moving to evermore encompass features of a structured society dedicated to automation. If the Eighteenth through the Twentieth Centuries were devoted to mechanization of mankind, the Twentieth through the ages to come are to become recognized as the Age of becoming a physical reality of the virtual mind. In particular, the computer is taking over the world of production and manufacturing as well as the realm of bookkeeping.
How China fits into this grand scheme is not hard to tell. In order for the Big companies of America to build the new empire of computer drones, they must get rid of the labor force of the past,with its old fashion ways of doing things and thinking about production. By cutting back on home productivity, they prepare the country for its advent into the new ways of doing business a la AI oversight of entrepreneurial businesses. Society is being prepared by business to accept its new look.
What will happen to the displaced workers on the assembly line, etc. They could attempt to destroy what new enterprises are currently and methodically set to take over the realm of today's labor market. God forbid! Big Business is offering society options on how to handle workers displaced in the productivity line.
Options for society to handle an overcrowded labor market
1. Retrain. 2. Pay all workers unable to find suitable work, a living stipend. (Incidentally, that was Nixon's option.) 3. Have as many able-bodied laborers among them paid to work on infrastructure projects such as construct roads and bridges.
Whatever option society chooses, China has a significant role to play, now.
In China, with Chinese labor, continue the modern methods of doing business that aren't as automated as soon Big Business will install in the States. In short, let the Chinese industries be the less futuristic and AI futuristic than that currently being installed in the US by US leaders per field of industry!
I believe US Big Business is already accomplishing this revolutionary change. Further, it is on a campaign worldwide to induce forward-looking corporations to re-locate to the United States, where labor costs are coming down due to the corporation giants who have been able to quell home dissent by creating a downturn in productivity on the home-front, while retooling on US shores for the future in the AI world of manufacture, maintenance and the manifold service areas.