"Made in China"???

Why is it that cheap plastic toys are always from china? I often wondered that as a small boy. It seems like now-a-days every time you pick anything up that looks worth a whole five bucks, it's probably form China. Now I'm not trying to bash on the Chinese. They have all lot of good things going for them and think about all the money they get from being the country that makes everything! Just because we think a toy that's worth $1.50 is cheap here, they probably make it there for 3 cents and ship it for 1 cent each. That's quite a profit when your shipping billions per year.
So why is China of all countries the country that has an insanely high exporting rate? Well if you consider the fact that China has a population of however many million people in it, they have plenty of workers. Also if you think about historically this question goes back thousands of years. The silk roads went to China from Europe and ships were constantly trying to get over there to trade.
The biggest reason has got to be that China has always been just a little bit ahead of everyone else when it comes to technological advances. While soldiers in Europe were barbarously stabbing each other with swords the Chinese were playing with gunpowder and rockets. They also had an amazing system of tests to prove you were the best candidate to advance in society. That way only the best of the best were in charge of the country. Whereas in Europe the strongest (which means that they most likely aren't the smartest of people) took charge of surrounding peoples and their land.
Although, the Chinese were always conquered easily, and sometimes difficultly, but in the end were taken over all the same. The British took China over and that's what pretty much started China being a "Work" country.
That makes one think "What if history would have been different?" What if China had oppressed and made the British "work people." Would the U.S. even exist? Would all the stickers on plastic products say "Made in England"?????????