WSJ story on how Hon Hai, the "world's biggest contract manufacturer of electronics," is heading inland in search of cheaper labor. The shift, as detailed in the chart, will be profound. Big investment bets being placed in major inland cities. The dream is a natural one, insource inland to prevent too much job flight to neighbors and help the country "retain its role as the world's factory floor for decades." Hon Hai chairman Terry Gou dismisses the notion that competing neighbors will ever be able to displace China.
Besides the geographic shift inland to capture labor costs estimated to be 2/3rds of those along the coast, there is a philosophical shift: this time around Hon Hai has no ambition to create and run entire factory towns within which the company is responsible for housing, healthcare, etc.