This report analyses China’s approach to attaining a dominant position in international markets through a combination of industrial, research & innovation (R&I), trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) policies. It also offers an assessment of China’s current position compared to the EU and US innovation systems across a range of dimensions. China is rapidly becoming a major industrial competitor in high-tech and growth sectors. It aims, through the Made in China (MIC) 2025 strategy, to become a world leader in 10 key industrial sectors:
- Next-generation IT;
- High-end numerical control machinery and robotics;
- Aerospace and aviation equipment;
- Maritime engineering equipment and high-tech maritime vessel manufacturing;
- Advanced rail equipment;
- Energy-saving vehicles and new energy vehicles;
- Electrical equipment;
- Agricultural machinery and equipment;
- New materials;
- Biopharmaceutical and high-performance medical devices.
In these sectors, it strives to strengthen its domestic innovation capacity, to reduce its reliance on foreign technologies while moving up global value chains. The MIC 2025 strategy aims to encourage substantial investments from national and regional governments to support domestic firms and improve knowledge infrastructures. The government intends to strengthen China’s innovation capabilities and overall competitiveness by, in its own words, ‘relying on market forces’, though, in line with its ‘socialist market economy’, the state will remain central.
PDF file, 128 pages