As labor costs increase, Chinese factory owners have turned towards automation and robotics to remain competitive. The latest version of the China Employer-Employee Survey has found that real wages have more than doubled in the past decade. Countries such as Mexico, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, and India have outgrown China as new cheap labor havens for foreign businesses, meaning China must continually adapt to a more competitive global market by investing in automation. Even though the government grants tax breaks and subsidies to firms investing in new technology, many firms end up losing money or making very little at all.
See "China Robots Displace Workers as Wage Spiral Pressures Profits", Bloomberg Businessweek, July 3, 2017