a former vice chairman of the National People’s Congress Claims “Beating U.S. by Manufacturing and Defense”
It has been argued that China will surpass the United States in high-tech and military manufacturing within the next decade.
According to the Hong Kong Sound China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 10th, Lu Yongxiang, former vice chairman of the National People’s Congress, a prominent Chinese strategist, recently made such an op-ed.
“The overall decline in the U.S. manufacturing industry and weakening competitiveness in the global market have become irreversible trends,” Lu said in a commentary. Although the U.S. is far ahead of China in high-tech industries, especially in the production of high-tech weapons, its competitiveness is rapidly decreasing.
The U.S. moved labor-intensive and low-value-added manufacturing industries to developing countries, focused only on maintaining research and development of high-tech technologies and developing securities and finance, former Vice Chairman Lu said. “As a result, the U.S. manufacturing industry is accelerating the transition from a real economy to a financial economy due to excessive financial bubbles, constant provocations of international disputes, and extreme partisan conflicts in the U.S.”
He pointed out, “Aging infrastructure in the U.S. and avoiding manufacturing by young people are also accelerating the continued decline of the U.S. manufacturing industry.” Referring to this, “Made in China” will overtake the United States to become a global leader in 2035, predicting that China’s economy could be larger than the United States by then.
Former Vice Chairman Lu stressed, “We need to turn the crisis into an opportunity through technological innovation, which is China’s strength.” China’s R&D intensity is 2.64% of its gross domestic product (GDP), exceeding the European Union (EU) average. China has vast human resources and the world’s fastest-growing manufacturing domestic market, he said. “This is an irresistible attraction for global innovators and international capital.”
Former Vice Chairman Lu is a former mechanical engineer and is known to have had a great influence in establishing the Chinese government’s long-term development strategy. He also served as the director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, an advisory organization in the field of science and technology, and as a director of the advisory committee for the “Made in China 2025” program under the State Council.
According to the Chinese government, China’s manufacturing output overtook the United States in 2010. However, it was found that the Chinese manufacturing industry was far behind the United States in terms of technology and product quality. In 2015, the Chinese government launched Made in China 2025, a future 10-year project aimed at narrowing the technological gap with the United States.
Since then, the Trump and Biden administrations have taken a series of measures such as trade tariffs and semiconductor export controls to prevent China’s technological advancement. In response, the SCMP explained, “Most of the goals specified in the Made-in China 2025 plan (despite US sanctions) have already been achieved.”
