An American helped build a business in China. Customers want it gone.

The CEO of Welong Enterprise, which has six factories in mainland China and provides large-scale services, said, “There is no customer who does not push us by suggesting that we build factories outside of China.” Retailers like Walmart and consumer products Inc.

and grill maker Weber Inc.

However, he added, “There is nothing like China.” “We have built this supply chain for 30 years to operate like a Swiss watch. There is nothing like it.”

Untangling China will be slow, difficult and expensive for companies that have begun to rethink their reliance on the world’s second-largest economy. Some do so because of rising tensions between Beijing and Washington, D.C., over everything from trade, technology and security to Taiwan, a self-governing island that China claims is its own.

The differences threaten to unravel decades of economic integration. Many lawmakers in Washington now want some products to be manufactured in the US, and the Biden administration has imposed new restrictions on semiconductor exports to China. Chinese leaders also want to rely more on home-grown suppliers. The supply chain loosened by the pandemic and the disruption caused by China’s Covid-19 lockdowns further strained the countries’ relations.

Prior to the outbreak, investment by US companies in China had been declining. US companies They invested 13 billion dollars in 2019. That’s down from a peak of $15.4 billion in 2012, according to data compiled by research group Rhodium Group. Investment fell to just $8.4 billion last year.

It will not be easy for the US to disentangle itself from China. That country’s share of U.S. imports has declined in recent years, largely because of tariffs, but it’s still significant. Imports from China accounted for 17% of total U.S. imports in the first eight months of this year, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. While down from 22 percent in 2017, that was the highest percentage of any country before the Trump administration imposed tariffs on various Chinese products.

Scenes from the brush production line at the Weilong factory in Yangjiang, China. Yuki Zhong (2), Benny Su

For some U.S. executives, the turmoil in recent years has been enough to drive them to expand their supply chain networks. Companies that make Crocs shoes, T-beer coolers, Roomba vacuums and GoPro cameras are among the U.S. manufacturers that have moved production outside of China amid rising trade tensions under the Trump administration. New York perfumer Inter Parfums Inc.

Following layoffs at his factory in Shanghai, he decided to move his operations back to the U.S. when the pandemic hit. Among the more than 300 American companies recently surveyed by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, 18 percent ranked China first in their international investment plans, down from 27 percent in 2021.

Moving away from China poses many challenges, as Mr. Rothman is finding. His company has expanded into Cambodia and in recent years has entered into joint ventures in Vietnam and India. Mr. Rothman said he has been investigating factories in Mexico and Turkey and looking at potential in the Philippines. His company employs approximately 1,200 in six major Chinese factories and 600 outside China.

Each option has disadvantages. Cambodia and Vietnam are promising but very small in capacity and population, he said. Factories in Vietnam are already packed and overcrowded and space is limited. Turkey has shiny, high-tech factories, but is beset by high inflation, which complicates cost and price adjustments. India has great potential but needs new infrastructure such as better roads, says Mr Rothman.

They say no other country can match the scale and complexity of China’s infrastructure. Getting the right factories, people, equipment, and raw material supplies together is like “landing a jet on an aircraft carrier.”

Mr. Rothman has spent decades learning how things work in China. He said he thought he might become a rabbi after growing up in California and studying religion at Bowdoin College in Maine. Instead, he went to China to produce and develop products for his family’s business, National Broom Co., a California broom and mop maker. Upon its arrival in China, National Broom began producing electronic gadgets and gifts that could land on retail shelves. Shelves during the holidays.

He learned to speak fluently from a tutor in San Francisco, a grammar book and a dictionary. He tried to immerse himself in China in a way that many Westerners did not. Instead of the Sheraton or the Westin, he stayed at local Chinese hotels, and instead of relying on drivers, he took buses and struck up conversations with strangers to improve his language skills. Finally he married a Chinese woman.

Mr. Rothman’s commitment to the country increased when he partnered with Chen Jingqiu, a Chinese man who served as a supplier for the family business. Mr. Chen was a businessman who co-founded Weilong Enterprises in 2003 with Cao Yushu, Mr. Rothman’s wife. Mr. Chen was based in the southern coastal city of Yangjiang.

The two men invested in new machinery and over the years amassed an impressive list of Western customers, including Walmart and Weber’s Dollar Retailers. Corporation

and Canadian Loblaw companies Ltd

, as well as brands such as Mr. Bar-BQ and Char-Broil. In the year In 2012, Mr. Rothman left the family business to focus full time on Velong. In the year In 2013, the company’s annual revenue was $32 million, up from roughly $3.8 million a decade earlier.

A Walmart spokesperson said the company’s sourcing approach “includes a variety of complementary strategies and relationships with both established and new suppliers.” The other companies did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Rothman’s partnership with Mr. Chen came to ensure a tight bond between the countries and their families. His wife, Ms. Cao, and Mr. Chen’s wife, Chen Jing, ran the company’s finances. “It’s China and America working together,” Mr. Rothman said.

They also had disagreements. Mr. Rothman said he once argued with Mr. Chen about how to treat a customer and was so upset that he left the factory and ran away in a motorcycle taxi. Mr. Chen said she chased him for miles in his car, pleading with him at stoplights to return to the factory. “I finally calmed down. He paid the motorcycle driver and went back to work.

He first started hearing from customers looking for factories outside of China at the start of Donald Trump’s presidency, Mr. Rothman said, and the inquiries intensified after tariffs on Chinese-made goods were imposed in 2018. Velong, a joint venture in Vietnam, has spent $5 million to build a factory in Cambodia to cover grills and furniture. The product is It will start in early 2020. The company chose Cambodia because of its duty-free shipping to the US, lower labor costs, and more. Cheaper and easier to find a place than in Vietnam.

Then the plague hit. China’s strict border control meant that some technical managers could not visit the factory to visit the factory. Hiring workers and managing the factory at launch is done remotely. Business is still up as Western-bound consumers splurge on new grills and kitchen appliances. The company’s revenue is expected to peak at nearly $160 million in 2021.

High inflation and rising interest rates dampened consumer demand, reducing orders for new goods from Velong factories, including operations in Cambodia. Velong has not yet recouped its $5 million investment, Mr. Rothman said. The plan is to add production lines that make kitchen counters, thermometers and other electronic devices, and build a school to help workers develop skills in English, accounting and business management, Mr. Rothman said.

The Velong joint venture in Vietnam manufactures boards and charging cables. Another makes brassware and metal home decor in India.

But none of these places can compete with China, said Mr. Rothman, who has visited factories in Vietnam, India and Mexico, where assembly lines are poorly organized and easily automated, with tasks such as cutting and polishing sheet metal done by hand, limiting production speed.

He said he couldn’t find the type of plastic needed to make grills or outdoor furniture covers in Mexico; It must come from China. He said that in Vietnam and Cambodia, temperature sensors such as thermometers should be sent in metal and electronic parts. He says they are from China.

Making these offshore funds pay off over the long term is another challenge. Mr. Rothman said he had nightmares about choosing the wrong location and installing a factory that no one wanted to use. Customers, he said, are eager to make the move, but don’t always come to do the business.

Unpacking from China “happens in doubles and dribbles.” And it will increase from time to time. But it won’t be easy.

Pressures to look elsewhere are not abating as inflation continues to rise in Ukraine. The company’s revenue is expected to decline by 30 percent by 2021. “Some of our customers are now losing confidence in China. But this is beyond our control,” says Ms Cao. Mr. Chen 2022 feels like a turning point: “As the world’s factory floor moves forward, the world may no longer rely on China.”

After a decade of bouncing between China and the US, Mr. Rothman and his wife bought a house in Shanghai with the intention of making it a permanent home. They were supposed to open in the summer after completing the renovation, but the locks caused delays. They hope to finally move in November.

Mr Rothman said he was angry about his 12-year-old son’s education after many foreign teachers at Shanghai International Schools left the city to escape the controlled life. This year, during the lockdown, Mr. Rothman spent two weeks teaching English to the children of his Chinese neighbors.

“I don’t want to leave here. I have invested 20 years of my life. But if I have to, I will do it,” he says.

Write Jason Douglas at jason.douglas@wsj.com and Stella Yifan Xie at stella.xie@wsj.com