Ease heavy tax burden to upgrade manufacturing

MORE THAN 20 DEPARTMENTS of the State Council, China's cabinet, are pressing ahead with the government's "1+X" initiative. The "1" stands for "Made in China 2025", a road map to enhance the country's manufacturing power, and "X" means guidelines for sectors including smart manufacturing and innovation of high-end equipment. But for the initiative to work extra efforts have to be made to lower tax burden on enterprises, Beijing Youth Daily commented on Thursday:

First proposed by Premier Li Keqiang in his government work report in 2015, the "Made in China 2025" guideline was a result of forward-thinking and proactive reading of the changing tides of globalization. Since the 1990s the United States has witnessed an exodus of domestic manufacturers to emerging markets, but it was hit hard by the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009 partly due to its weakened manufacturing.

That, to some extent, explains why Donald Trump, the new US president, won unparalleled support from the working class during last year's presidential election. A staple of his campaign efforts was convincing blue-collar workers that he would raise their pay and create more jobs by bringing US manufacturers back from overseas markets.