Sure, but they already had the chile mine BEFORE they had the U.S one. Why not just dig another one in chile? It was clearly the better option.
Right?
My guess and adding to
@Smurf1976 post :
The USA has a lot of advantages over many other countries. Some that come to mind, in no particular order:
There has obviously been a massive clash of ideologies, the Chinese wanting to bring their poor into a first World standard of living (which they IMO have done an exceptional job of so far), as opposed to the U.S ideology of paying the "high achievers" high wages and holding the sceptre of off shoring to to keep the middle class on the treadmill and the poor don't even rate.
So IMO the next few years is going to be a massive reset for the USA, Trump started it with lets make America great again, but it clashed with the multi nationals still believing it would decimate their bottom line, having to manufacture their stuff in the U.S as opposed to China.
Now along comes the virus and highlights the problem with 100% dependency, on what really is an opposite ideology.
The U.S really has funded China's resurgence at the expense of its own middle class, to turn that around, they can't expect China to help them.
So the only option while they are the powerhouse, is to focus inwardly and be able to compete with China, that is a huge transformation and cultural change.
Also the very change the Trump with all his bumbling was talking about, the guy was a goose, the multi nationals and the media cooked him.
Now they are finding he was right in his basic belief, they have to be able to compete with China and bring manufacturing home, or they have to start teaching mandarin at schools.