I don't think you can take GDP and divide it by population that way to get average wages. If you did that with the U.S., you'd get $15.6 Trillion/314 million or an average wage of $50,000. Our average wages are $30,000. You have to leave room for corporate profits. Or in China's case State run companies profits.
Labor costs have risen in some provinces of China. I've seen some people say $6 or $7/hour. But I also saw a recent report that said 10% of Chinese still work for less than $1 a day. So there is at least a couple of hundred million Chinese willing to work for $2 an hour.
I think it really depends on how much you want to train, and where you're willing to locate your plant.
When China is trying to make it sound like they are no longer a thread and are no longer competitive. They play up the rising wages and the ever pending banking crisis and economic gloom and doom.
When China is trying to attract companies, they play up the number of people willing to work for really low wages.
My source says
“As Chinese wages rise, US manufacturers head back home”
“One big factor behind the move is the rising cost of labor in China. When it joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, China’s average manufacturing wage was 58 cents an hour, says Harold Sirkin, senior partner at the Chicago office of BCG “
How about a CURRENT SOURCE showing 17 cents an hour in china.
I am sure you can find at least one chinaman working for 17 cents an hour somewhere, but I am talking about an overall wage.