The race to upgrade China's manufacturing

Experts focus on middle-income trap and green concerns

Countries, like companies, have to change their business models as world circumstances change.

In the early 2000s, China's development model was based on low-wage manufacturing combined with high savings and investment rates. The very success of that model in drastically raising living standards has now led the Chinese government to adopt an ambitious set of policies to upgrade China's industry, to escape the so-called middle-income trap and to support a green environment.