Plan to produce a manufacturing powerhouse

One of the reasons the launch of Apple's iPhone 8 in China reportedly drew a muted reaction is Chinese consumers can now get much of what Apple offers in domestically developed smartphones, such as those manufactured by Xiaomi and Huawei.

And smartphones are only one of the technological breakthroughs China has made in recent years. China now leads the world in high-speed railways, mobile payments and e-commerce.

One of the pillars of this innovation-driven growth is the Made in China 2025 strategy introduced by the government in 2015, which aims to boost manufacturing innovation and transform China into a leading manufacturing powerhouse. China has long realized that the world factory model for its economy, based on low-end, lowwage, low added-value production, is no longer sustainable. And it has been feeling the pressure of competition both from traditional manufacturing leaders such as Germany and the United States, which are vigorously pursuing a manufacturing renaissance following the global financial crisis, and from emerging economies such as India and Brazil, which now have lower labor costs.