
China will lead the world in smart manufacturing by 2030, report says
China's ambitious 'Made in China 2025' industrial strategy has put the country on track to become a global leader in smart manufacturing within the next few years, though breakthroughs are still needed in several bottleneck technologies, according to a new report by Beijing's Renmin University of China.
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The Made in China 2025 project, launched a decade ago, aimed to propel China to the forefront of a slew of hi-tech industries, including aerospace, electric cars, robotics and telecommunications.
Though Beijing has become reluctant to publicly name-check the policy in recent years amid global pushback – especially from the United States – the strategy nevertheless helped China achieve remarkable progress in several key areas, said Wang Wen, dean of Renmin University's Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies.
Beijing has not published an official assessment of 'Made in China 2025', but a calculation by the Post last year
found that 86 per cent of the targets laid out in the plan had been achieved.
At a US congressional hearing on 'Made in China 2025' in February, US experts
expressed alarm at China's fast progress in advanced manufacturing and warned that America risked 'losing the next industrial revolution'.
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The Chongyang report comes at a time of intensifying US-China economic rivalry, as US President Donald Trump
attempts to pressure manufacturers of high-end products to reshore production to America by weaponising tariffs.
For Wang, the Chinese government should stick to its guns by continuing to build on its manufacturing strengths while advancing independent technological innovation. If it does so, the future looks bright, he said.
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