Re: “India and China are a real economic threat in terms of undercutting our industries....”
In 2017, China’s industrial output ($2.01 trillion) was just 7% higher than the USA ($1.87 trillion).
The USA has had the most efficient and most productive industrial workers in the world for at least the last 100 years.
China has four times as many industrial workers as the USA, but just 7% more output.
In 2017, India produced $298 billion of industrial goods.
Germany produced $700 billion. South Korea produced $372 billion.
Right; those are very telling figures. If these were fully developed countries their output would be significantly higher - but they aren’t.