--FILE--A Chinese worker tests robot arms for glazing bathroom products at the plant of Foshan LXD Robotics Co., Ltd. in Foshan city, south China&#039;s Guangdong province, 7 May 2015.

Having devoured many of the world&#039;s factory jobs, China is now handing them over to robots. China already ranks as the world&#039;s largest market for robotic machines. Sales in 2014 grew 54% from a year earlier, and the boom shows every sign of increasing. China is projected to have more installed industrial robots than any other country by 2016, according to the International Federation of Robotics. China&#039;s emergence as an automation hub contradicts many assumptions about robots and the global economy. A confluence of economic forces is behind the trend in China. Labor costs, while low relative to advanced economies like the U.S., have soared. That has undermined the calculus that brought many of those jobs there in the first place. And new robot technology is cheaper and easier to use than ever before. In addition, many of China&#039;s fastest-growing industries, such as autos, tend to rely on automation regardless of where the factories are. Some jobs, such as delicate operations in electronics plants, can only be done with machines.