Former minister says China’s production is still inadequate
China is at least 30 years away from becoming a “superpower” manufacturing nation, a former industry minister said on Sunday, despite boasting the world’s most complete industrial supply chains.
In recent years, China has become the world’s leading manufacturing nation, accounting for over a third of global production, driven by domestic demand to produce everything from motor vehicles to industrial machinery. But its industry’s heavy reliance on American high-tech products as semiconductors was a strategic weakness.
“Basic capabilities are still weak, core technologies are in the hands of others, and the risk of being ‘hit in the neck’ and having a ‘sliding bicycle chain’ has increased significantly,” said Miao Wei, who was an industrial information technology for a decade resigned last year.
As the Chinese economy turns towards a service-based model, and polluting smoke roof factories are milked, production output as a share of the economy has declined. In 2020, the manufacturing industry accounted for just over a quarter of gross domestic product, the lowest since 2012.
“The ratio of output to GDP has fallen too soon and too fast …,” said Miao, now a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the government’s top advisory body.
.
