People flooded Foxconn Technology with résumés at a 2010 job fair in Henan Province, China.

When Barack Obama joined Silicon Valley’s top luminaries for dinner in California last February, each guest was asked to come with a question for the president.

An Empire Built Abroad

Articles in this series are examining challenges posed by increasingly globalized high-tech industries.

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A production line in Foxconn City in Shenzhen, China. The iPhone is assembled in this vast facility, which has 230,000 employees, many at the plant up to 12 hours a day, six days a week.

But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama...