[Source/Observer Network Ruan Jiaqi]

By the end of 2024, Audi, a German car manufacturer, successfully completed the construction and production of its first electric vehicle plant in China, located in Changchun, Jilin. Tobias Liebeck, head of manufacturing engineering at the Changchun plant, was particularly impressed by the large-scale application of Chinese industrial robots on the production line:

From automated presses that stamp metal sheets into door panels, to over 800 robots welding parts into frames, to another Chinese company completing the automated wheel installation process...the number of robots used per shift has already exceeded the number of workers.

"We didn't expect so many processes could be automated here in China," Liebeck remarked.

"This newly built electric vehicle plant is also a vivid example measuring the success of China's 'Made in China 2025' core industrial policy," reported the Financial Times on the 28th. Recently, two latest reports from the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China and the American economic research firm Rhodium Group both show that China has achieved the core goals of this plan, completing the transformation of its manufacturing industry from reliance on cheap labor to modernization.

The British media pointed out that "Made in China 2025" is not only a historical turning point for China's manufacturing industry but has also reshaped the global economic landscape. Nowadays, countries around the world are closely watching the effectiveness of this plan, trying to understand the scale of Beijing's resource investment, exploring strategies to respond to China's manufacturing competition, and even considering learning "Chinese experience" or replicating "Chinese solutions."

In particular, as China is laying out similar plans for future technologies including advanced semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and intelligent equipment and humanoid robots, this scrutiny has become more urgent.

Last year, Chinese manufacturers accounted for most of the domestic industrial robot market. Chart by the Financial Times.

In 2015, China launched an ambitious ten-year plan known as "Made in China 2025," aiming to achieve self-innovation and enhanced capabilities in manufacturing within a decade. The target industries include robotics, advanced rail transit equipment, high-tech marine shipbuilding, aerospace equipment, new energy vehicles, and next-generation information technology.

According to a report by the Financial Times, thanks to the deep integration of national policy support with the entrepreneurial vitality of the private sector, coupled with intense competition driven by China's vast market, China has significantly increased the domestic and international market share of local enterprises in multiple fields, with some technical strengths matching or even surpassing international top levels.

A tracking survey conducted last year by Bloomberg also found that despite years of malicious suppression by the United States, "Made in China 2025" has largely succeeded.

According to its statistics, among 13 key technologies, China leads globally in five areas including drones, solar panels, graphene, high-speed rail, and electric vehicles and lithium batteries, and is rapidly catching up in another seven areas.

In 2024, China leads globally in five of the 13 key technology fields. Chart by Bloomberg.

The Financial Times particularly mentioned that China's industrial policies aim to build self-reliant supply chains to resist Western interference. This strategic goal has been tested in the recent tariff tug-of-war between the U.S. and China: despite the intense tariff battle, China has consistently adhered to its principles, relying on strong economic resilience and firm positions, ultimately prompting U.S. President Trump to make concessions and significantly reduce tariffs on Chinese goods.

Analysts pointed out that this is because the U.S. may have realized its severe dependence on Chinese imports and dare not rashly implement tariff measures equivalent to "trade embargo."

Gerard DiPippo, acting deputy director of the RAND Corporation's Center for China Studies, said, "One can say that, thanks to its export dominance, China has reached parity with the U.S."

Jens Eskelund, chairman of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, also stated that currently China accounts for 29% of global manufacturing value-added. "So if the goal of 'Made in China 2025' is to turn China into a leading global manufacturing power, then its mission has been accomplished," he added.

"When it comes to manufacturing, no one in the world can match China today," he continued.

Li Menggang, dean of the National Institute of Economic Security at Beijing Jiaotong University, said that the purpose of "Made in China 2025" is to transform China from a "manufacturing giant" into a "manufacturing powerhouse." This plan is not only more comprehensive than earlier industrial policies but also sets detailed targets for market share, domestic self-sufficiency rates, and technological development.

Rhodium Group, commissioned by the American Chamber of Commerce, rated the success of the targeted industries in the plan based on four indicators in its report: reducing import dependency, decreasing reliance on foreign enterprises, becoming a technological leader, and achieving global competitiveness.

In the ten industries covered by the plan, Rhodium considers that China's high-end rail transport equipment and power equipment perform strongly across all four indicators; robotics, machine tools, agricultural machinery, and electric vehicle industries partially perform well; while new materials, aerospace equipment, and biopharmaceuticals and high-performance medical devices perform relatively weakly.

The report also noted different development levels within specific categories within a single industry. For instance, in CNC machine tools, China has achieved self-sufficiency and exceeded targets in mid-to-low-end CNC machine tools but has a lower proportion in the high-end segment, at 15%.

Rhodium’s assessment of the four dimensions for China's ten industries. Chart by the Financial Times.

In terms of technological leadership, the ranking listed in the EU Chamber of Commerce report aligns with Rhodium's, placing advanced shipbuilding, high-end rail transport equipment, and new energy vehicles at the highest ratings, followed by agricultural machinery and power equipment.

Moreover, both reports also mentioned the role of foreign enterprises. Rhodium's report states that foreign enterprises are incentivized to localize production in China, further helping Beijing achieve its goal of integrating into the domestic supply chain. The study notes that even amid stagnant U.S. exports to China, sales of U.S. subsidiaries in China continue to rise.

Camille Boullenois, co-author of the Rhodium report, pointed out that many foreign enterprises in China focus on local operations rather than exports, making "China very successful in reducing import dependency." "In a sense, these foreign enterprises have also contributed to China's success," she said.

Some experts believe that evaluating the results of "Made in China 2025" solely based on the degree of achievement does not fully reflect the core objectives of the plan.

Max Zenglein, chief economist of Merics, the largest China-focused think tank in Europe, emphasized that "the real goal of this plan is for China to become a manufacturing superpower, and current assessments completely deviate from this point."

Professor Li Menggang of Beijing Jiaotong University told the Financial Times that industrial policies have played a positive role in China's development. He said, "Technological leadership in specific fields is the foundation for China's participation in global competition and also aligns with global trends. In these areas, we will remain unwavering in our industrial policies."

Professor Li Menggang also pointed out that industrial policies need optimization. He believes that future policies will no longer focus solely on expanding scale but will emphasize enhancing the added value of the entire industrial chain, focusing on research and development investment, patent quality, and other indicators, to "avoid blind expansion while guiding long-term competitiveness."

Camille Boullenois of the Rhodium report also stated that the unprecedented growth of industrial policy funds in the past may be difficult to replicate in the next decade, but China's manufacturing sector will continue to maintain vitality and may benefit from the development of artificial intelligence.

The Financial Times noticed that under the slogan of "developing new productive forces," China is seeking to strengthen its leadership in cutting-edge technologies and achieve the goal of building an autonomous "science and technology powerhouse." Professor Li Menggang interpreted this as the deepening of the "Made in China" plan, but with a greater emphasis on technological innovation.

Humanoid robots are the next hotspot area. Tobias Liebeck of Audi told the Financial Times that a Chinese team developed a bionic humanoid robot using promising technology, which is being tested at the Changchun plant.

The design of these robots features two arms, but Liebeck feels it's not enough. He envisions, "We want robots with four or five arms."

This article is an exclusive piece by the Observer Network and cannot be reprinted without permission.

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7509704497913709090/

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