There are of course numerous reasons that went into the decision. And we weren’t in the room at the time, so we can only speculate on what factors were considered.
But consider this - intellectual property theft from Chinese manufactured goods hit 7,000 American companies in the past several years.
When things are manufactured in China, they don’t have to reverse-engineer it. It just ends up being stolen, and they sell cheaper knock-offs. To themselves - China, of course - and also countries in Africa, India, Russia, and South America. That is a huge market, about 3/4 of the world.
By having a manufacturing plant in the U.S., Insulet is able to have tighter control over their intellectual property.
Possible tax breaks for having the plant located domestically could be another reason.
Another consideration is what countries are getting the product. For some countries, from a crypto standpoint, having a plant located in China and doing export to them is easier, whereas for other countries having the plant located in the U.S. and exporting to them is easier. It depends on the country to which it is being exported.
So there are a lot of factors. I thought it was an interesting subject to examine.