???? Assessing "Made in China 2025" Ambitions and Progress

Made in China 2025: How China Thrives Despite Tech Sanctions

Beijing’s Made in China 2025 initiative has scored successes on many fronts despite technology restrictions imposed by the West. But China still lags far behind on semiconductors and generative AI, gaps that its leaders are finding to be hard to bridge.

By Silva Shih , 林以璿

Not far from electric vehicle maker BYD Co. Ltd.’s headquarters in Shenzhen, the eight rotors of an autonomous drone-like aircraft are whirring, preparing for takeoff. Inside this aircraft, there is only a display screen and space for two adults, neither of whom are pilots.

This is a fully electric “autonomous flying car.”

Last year, the company behind this invention, Guangzhou EHang Intelligent Technology Co. Ltd., obtained the first-ever certification for a passenger eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft from China’s Civil Aviation Administration. It is already running pilot programs in Shenzhen, and it expects to launch an autonomous flying taxi service by next year.

Morgan Stanley estimates that by 2040, this futuristic industry will be worth US$1 trillion, and cities like London and New York are already gearing up for flying taxis. But the first certification and flight-testing of the concept in the world occurred in China.

Let’s now head to Beijing.

At the World Robot Conference held in the new Yizhuang Development Zone near Beijing in late August, 27 humanoid robots were unveiled — all made by Chinese brands. These included Unitree Robotics (formally Hangzhou Yushu Technology Co., Ltd.), which has shared the stage with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, Kepler Exploration Robot Co., Ltd., which has a product that mimics Tesla's humanoid, and Leju Robotics Co., which is partnering with Huawei.

At least five companies revealed that their robots were already functioning on the production lines of BYD and logistics companies.

How is it possible that China has continued to make technological advances despite technology sanctions imposed by the West??

It all traces back to a decade-old policy.

"Made in China 2025" — Down but Not Out

Over a decade ago, China mobilized more than 100 experts to identify key industries and development technologies, with the ambitious goal of turning China into a manufacturing powerhouse within 10 years.

This initiative, known as "Made in China 2025," triggered America's strategy to block China's tech development.

In 2018, it caught the attention of the U.S. government. Peter Navarro, director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy under then President Donald Trump, singled out Made in China 2025 as a direct competitor to the U.S., declaring that "China is basically trying to steal the future of Japan, the U.S. and Europe, by going after our technology."?

He also asserted that America could not allow China to take the lead in the key industries highlighted in its 2025 initiative.

Subsequently, the U.S. began targeting companies in the 2025 plan, starting with telecommunications giant ZTE Corp., and then extended that into a broader tech clampdown on both technology and equipment.

The term "Made in China 2025" has since disappeared from both domestic discussions and official websites. But has the policy stalled?

Read the full article:

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