China is at least 30 years away from becoming a manufacturing nation of “great power”, a former industry minister said on Sunday, despite boasting the world’s most complete industrial supply chains.
In recent years, China has become the world’s top manufacturing nation, accounting for over a third of global output, driven by domestic demand to produce everything from motor vehicles to industrial machinery. But its industries’ heavy dependence on US high-tech products such as semiconductors constituted a strategic weakness.