People’s Daily republished a commentary from Science and Technology Daily, claiming that the U.S. will be unable to replicate China’s success in manufacturing:
The RAND Corporation recently published a commentary summarizing the development experience of China’s manufacturing sector. It suggested that, as the United States attempts to revive its domestic manufacturing industry, China’s experience might be beneficial for the U.S. No matter how biased American think tanks may be toward China, they cannot deny that China has achieved unprecedented success.
However, compared to China’s successful approach, the measures taken by the U.S. government to revive manufacturing can be said to be completely counterproductive.
China does not rely on tariffs, but the U.S. has made tariffs its primary tool to force the reshoring of manufacturing and to protect domestic industry. In fact, for America’s already weakened manufacturing sector, tariffs are not a cure but may instead become a poison.
Whereas the Chinese government is skilled at formulating long-term and predictable industrial plans, U.S. industrial policy swings sharply between the “left” and the “right,” with previous and current administrations vastly differing in their approaches.
While China is enhancing manufacturing productivity through robotics and intelligent automation, the U.S. government is, ironically, harming its own automation capabilities via imposing tariffs on Chinese goods. China plays a crucial role in the global robotics supply chain, with many key components dependent on Chinese production. For example, according to Morgan Stanley, about 56 percent of companies in the global humanoid robotics supply chain are located in China.
In terms of investment in scientific research and innovation, unlike the Chinese government’s continuous efforts, the U.S. government is cutting research budgets for institutions such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH), NASA, and the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Source: People’s Daily, April 27, 2025
http://finance.people.com.cn/n1/2025/0427/c1004-40469046.html