Almost every single thing you own was manufactured in China. Almost nothing you own is manufactured in America. The US car industry only exists because the US has banned the Chinese competition.

China has 10x the employees in manufacturing. If you remove the areas where Chinese competition is banned, cars and defense, the lead will be even more enormous. Actually look at what part of the US economy is manufacturing. The US is not manufacturing "even though" 1/30 the of the population works in manufacturing.

Also compare the jobs. In Software basically every job is a high paying middle class existence. In manufacturing basically every job is lower class. Studying mechanical engineering in the US is choosing to be a looser.