OTOH it is virtually impossible to produce for example iPhones and large scale consumer electronics in the West. In China, you can recruit 100.000 or 150.000 assembly line workers in a matter of weeks, shove them in the factory and shiny iPhones/laptops start rolling out in a matter of days. In the West, you have everything working against you as an entrepreneur (I am not entering into discussion about worker's rights now...), from state regulation, unions, higher wages, employee contribution/taxation, to employment process.
Chinese do not have more public holidays than most EU countries (I don't know about USA though). There are 25 public holidays in China, but 5-6 are mandatorily compensated by working Saturdays. When you subtract public holidays that fall on Sundays, it's quite similar.
In EU countries, the lowest number of vacation days (usually for new/young employees) is 20. In Germany, almost all companies grant 30 vacation days (Saturdays, Sundays and holidays excluded). For example, I have 30 paid vacation days annually, and additional 7 I can take as paid days off for specific reasons (appearance at court, wedding, death of family member or education).
In China, for employees working for up to 10 years, only 5 paid vacation days annually are granted. In USA - it's zero, and up to the employer.
So, in most cases, it is much more difficult to organize industrial production, than in China... also evidenced by mass scale transfer of industry from USA/EU to China from the beginning of 80s. We simply do not mass produce anything any more and rely on high technology.
The problem will start when internal accumulation of capital in China and India grows sufficiently along with human capital and knowledge, because it is *us* who will become mass producers, and they will start selling knowledge. The process will reverse itself. I think that "our empire" is in decline, but one should analyse larger timelines (decades/centuries) and not years in order to realize this.
