COMMENT | Many people notice the pattern but rarely pause to question it. Household appliances often trace back to one city. Festive decorations seem to come from another. Toys, yet again, from a different place.

To outsiders, it looks accidental. In truth, it is anything but. China does not allow industries to grow randomly. It builds them deliberately, city by city, product by product.

What looks like manufacturing success is actually the result of long-term coordination. Entire towns are shaped around a single line of production until that product becomes part of the city’s identity.

In many Western economies, factories appear wherever land is cheap or incentives are offered. Supply chains are stretched. Workers are generalists. When costs rise, factories move.

China chose a...