That is correct, however when Apple has plenty of them in stock, they ship directly from their warehouses in U.S.
Like if you were to order an iPhone SE right now, it would ship directly from the warehouse and not from China since there are plenty of stock, same goes for the iPhone 11 and the XR, I'm also certain that the iPhone 12, since if you order it now the soonest you can get it for delivery is 12/15/2020 (Tuesday), so it's definitely stored in the warehouse ready to ship if you order today. Same goes for the 12 Mini.
Only phones right now that isn't stocked up at the warehouse is the 12 Pro and the 12 Pro Max. But eventually they will be.