China Unveils Plan to Become a Manufacturing Superpower by 2025

Date: 06 March 2021 - 21:53

News ID: ۸۸۲۹۳

BEIJING (SCMP) - China has unveiled a comprehensive plan to upgrade its manufacturing capabilities by 2025 via eight priority areas, sharpening its global competitiveness amid a broad trade and tech dispute with the United States.
The plan, which was introduced at the annual meeting of top legislative body the National People’s Congress  (NPC), is focused on rare earth and special materials, robotics , aircraft engines, new energy vehicles and smart cars, high-end medical equipment and innovative medicine such as vaccines, agricultural machinery, major equipment used in shipbuilding, aviation and high-speed rail, and industrial applications of China’s Beidou global navigation satellite system.
"We must keep the share of manufacturing stable in the overall economy and enhance China’s competitive advantages in this sector,” the government said in the 142-page 14th five-year plan, which is set to be endorsed by the NPC’s nearly 3,000 delegates.
Beijing’s emphasis on advanced manufacturing  forms an integral part of the country’s 14th five-year plan, which spells out the country’s economic and development goals for 2021 to 2025. The "two sessions” – The annual gatherings of the NPC and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference  – provide a window on the central government’s new priorities and programs.
The renewed focus on advanced manufacturing, years after Beijing played down its "Made in China 2025” strategy amid complaints from Washington and Brussels, reflects the Chinese government’s determination to pursue a hi-tech transformation of this sector. That would help offset rising production costs, strengthen the country’s position in global supply chains, reduce reliance on foreign technologies and enhance its competitiveness against the U.S.