Harley Davidson was saved by tariffs. and even today, the US has a tariff on imported light trucks, which is one reason why Mercedes and Nissan build theirs in Alabama and Texas.
I guarantee you, that if car makers made a big move to build assembly plants in China for all their cars, to bring them back to the US - you would see tariffs on those imported autos. Because the auto manufacturing industry is one of the few with enough political clout to make it happen.
It was Ron Reagan who forced the Japanese to build their cars here--e.g., Honda and Toyota.
No accident. Reagan understood the National Interest--which Carly Fiorina couldn't SPELL.