China is at least 30 years away from becoming a manufacturing powerhouse, despite having the world’s most complete industrial supply chain, the former Chinese minister of industry and information technology said Sunday.
Driven by domestic demand in recent years, China has become the world’s largest manufacturing nation, accounting for more than a third of global output and producing everything from cars to industrial machinery. But its industry’s dependence on U.S. high-tech products such as semiconductors has become a strategic weakness.
Reuters reports that Miao Wei, China’s former minister of industry and information technology, said in a speech at a meeting of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in the Great Hall of the People on Sunday (March 7) that it would take 30 years for China to become a manufacturing powerhouse.
Miao Wei stepped down from his post last year after a decade as China’s minister of industry and information technology. He is currently a member of the CPC Central Committee and deputy director of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Economic Committee. Miao Wei said that in recent years, China’s “manufacturing development achievements are great, but big but not strong, the whole but not excellent situation has not been fundamentally changed, the basic capacity is still weak, the key core technology is subject to others, ‘neck’, ‘off the chain ‘ risk has increased significantly.”
Reuters reported that as China’s economy shifts to a service-based model, factories with polluting smokestacks are being closed and manufacturing output is declining as a share of the economy. in 2020, China’s manufacturing sector will account for slightly more than a quarter of gross domestic product, the lowest level since 2012.
Miao Wei said, “The share of manufacturing in GDP has fallen too soon and too fast, not only dragging down current economic growth and affecting urban employment, but also posing hidden industrial security risks and weakening our economy’s ability to resist risks and international competitiveness.”
Chinese leader Xi Jinping said in November that innovation in the manufacturing sector is far from enough, and that companies need to tackle “bottleneck” technologies to achieve full innovation.
Miao Wei’s speech also mentioned that China’s manufacturing industry is facing the situation of large but not strong, full but not excellent has not been fundamentally changed.
China’s former Minister of Industry and Information Technology said that many problems constrain the high-quality development of China’s manufacturing industry, but the most fundamental problem is the market-oriented reform is not in place.
Miao Wei said the tax burden on enterprises is still heavy and financial support for the manufacturing industry needs to be strengthened, but the shortage of innovation and high-tech talent also severely restricts the development of the industry.
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