The problem is not so much competing with others on the development and production of their own finished goods. This has little to do with what Japan and Germany pulled off back in the day, indeed it’s likely to absolutely fuck Germany over the next 20 years.
It is about labour arbitrage - the ability to endlessly bid down the cost of your own labour through having a globalised elastic workforce. It reduces workers to the equivalent of spanners or photocopiers - you just shop around for the cheapest. Exploitation at its purest. It also eliminates the need to invest in manufacturing efficiency that would help goods be made domestically.
It is also about western companies giving the likes of China the technological expertise they need to outgun the west, and India control of the operations of service industries, in return for that ability to swap in cheaper workers.
I think you are right that the horse is bolted, but we need to at least focus on the races as they are run today.
I’ve no idea what captive markets the American empire lost by the way. I mean honestly this anti western mythology is served up to soften up western labour to their own exploitation. I’d pass on it if I were you.