For example, all cell phones and laptops are built there with cheap workers.
That can't be answered so easily. There was once the time of the "German economic miracle" without cell phones and laptops, in which China was totally isolated.
When you talk about China and about the workers, I suppose that you refer to capitalism. Here are workers in z.b. China used to make products which are then sold abroad for profit. Since the labor force is so cheap, these are the lands that run the companies that keep workers in China richer as there's more profit from the cheaper workers. In addition, there are fewer jobs in Germany, etc.
Just about every manufacturing company in the world today competes with all the other companies in the world. Thus, every employee also competes with every other employee. If too high wages are paid in one country, then the manufacturer can no longer sell his products if there's someone who can produce cheaper. Then the company disappears from the market, the jobs fall away and then if a few years later someone builds a company in the same industry again, he may be smarter and does not pay the too high wages of that time. That's why even in China trees can't grow into the sky. There will always be areas where the Chinese are not so good at relying on us. But we will lose our supremacy in many areas. This in turn means that we will not be as good in the future as we're today. In contrast, the Chinese will be better off. The prosperity will flow to the Far East.
