My daughter returned to college in New York this fall. During the summer she kept many of her belongings in an off-campus storage facility. Everything was secured with a new "Made in China to U.S. quality specifications" lock from a well-known U.S. company.

When we went to retrieve her stuff at the beginning of the semester, the lock wouldn't open. Though we couldn't detect anything wrong with it, we were afraid she might have accidentally bent the key. So we tried the key on another lock nearby manufactured by the same company, just to see if the key was bent.

A Western buyer at the Canton trade fair protested against higher prices by wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “Too Expensive” in Chinese. That generated little sympathy from toy seller Clara Zhang.

“We all laughed so hard,” said Zhang, 26, sales manager for Nanjing Happy Toy Co., maker of teddy bears and stuffed ducks. “Then we said, ‘Sorry, sir, you probably need to pay even more.’”

Hundreds of toymakers at the China Import and Export Fair, the country’s largest, are charging more as the world’s second- largest economy battles inflation that soared to an almost three-year high of 5.4 percent in March. Mattel Inc. (MAT), which makes Barbie dolls, and Hasbro Inc.

No, the headline is not a mistake. I know we're usually worried about the opposite – whether or not U.S. manufacturers can compete with a rising China. But today I'm turning that question around. What doesn't get enough attention in today's discussions about America's economic competitiveness is that the U.S. remains a robust manufacturing power, despite what is going on in China. And it has some clear competitive advantages over its emerging-market rival. So not only is American manufacturing alive, but kicking pretty aggressively as well.

Just take a quick look at the numbers. According to United Nations data, the U.S.

China is gradually shifting away from its position as the world’s default production base for manufacturers. In this country, factor costs are surging and government incentives for foreign investors are diminishing, forcing more and more companies to seek new and attractive destinations where they can relocate their factories. While emerging Asian countries boasting low overhead costs – such as India, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia – are undoubtedly attracting mounting attention, the United States is also growing back into an increasingly reasonable option for manufacturing, according to an intensive study conducted by the U.S.-based advisory firm The Boston Consulting Group (BCG).