New challenge, new chances

In a recent plan for China's manufacturing, the Chinese government has mapped out a series of measures to boost the sector's development up to 2025, including efforts to promote integration of informationalization and industrialization, advance intelligent manufacturing and create an "Internet plus" environment.

Such an ambitious plan is much needed, given that China, as a big global manufacturer, cannot afford to miss the third industrial revolution having missed the previous two.

Information technology has considerably raised production efficiency. The high acceptance rate of products made through intelligent manufacturing in Germany is an indication of the enormous potential of intelligent manufacturing. The march of US Internet giants toward the real economy, such as the manufacturing of smart hardware by Google for contact lenses that measure wearers' blood sugar levels, and the use of unmanned aircraft by Amazon for goods delivery, has heralded the arrival of the "new hardware" era. This poses a new challenge to industrial development, but also creates a new area for growth.