An intelligent manufacturing factory in Ganzhou, east China's Jiangxi province. (PHOTO: VCG)

Edited by Tang Zhexiao

Since carrying out the policy of reform and opening up, China has seized its opportunity with both hands, racing to emerge as the world's biggest manufacturer.

From "Made in China" to "Intelligent Manufacturing in China," the country has shown its resilience and vitality, during the global supply chain crisis, providing support to stabilize the industrial chain and contributing to the high-quality development of global manufacturing.

Irreplaceable world factory

Since 2015, China's five major projects including innovation centers, industrial bases, green manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing, have all been launched and achieved results.

India's online news website Mint recently published an article, saying, "Other countries want to cut their dependence on the world's biggest factory floor, [and are] wary that Beijing is wielding too much power over the global economy. Replacing China, though, isn't all that easy. "

Parts of the supply chain may shift away from China, but for now, "No country can come close to building the intricate network of factories across such a broad range of sectors," said Mint.

U.S. bimonthly magazine The National Interest holds the same view. Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, many in the West have discussed the need for supply chain diversification to decrease their dependence on China for manufactured goods. But unfortunately, China is unlikely to be replaced in the global manufacturing supply chain anytime soon.

In fact, China has cemented its position as the world's leading supplier over the past two years. The Wall Street Journal said, "The West relies on Chinese factories, despite national security, supply-chain concerns."

China's share of global electronics exports, for instance, increased to 42 percent in 2021 from 38 percent in 2019, while its share of textile exports rose to 34 percent from 32 percent, according to data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

Intelligence boosts manufacturing upgrade

The magazine European Tool & Mould Making said, "Smartly Made in China" is making progress and some regions have already become real hot spots.

A recent report by global management consulting firm McKinsey, also said that China's industrial and manufacturing sectors will be able to drive a new wave of growth in the country's cloud computing market.

After surveying 278 decision makers in enterprise IT, digital and cloud from a wide range of sectors, analysts at McKinsey expect China's public cloud market to triple in size in the next few years, from 32 billion USD in 2021 to 90 billion USD by 2025, as industrial and manufacturing companies shift their information technology workloads to the cloud.

Green manufacturing in China has flourished as well. According to an article reporting on the world state of hydrogen technology patents by Japanese newspaper Nikkei Asia, the number of hydrogen technology patent filings by Chinese companies over this decade is already more than 10 times that of filings in the previous decade.

Scoring higher than Japan in four of the five categories of manufacturing, storage, safety controls and transportation, China has a good chance eventually to overtake Japan in all hydrogen-related fields, the article said.

China's manufacturing remains formidable despite the changes brought about by the pandemic, said Barrons, an American weekly magazine published by Dow Jones & Company, adding that "If global manufacturing were akin to the Olympics, China would take gold or silver in every event."