China shrugs off Trump’s plan for re-shoring US manufacturing
China has no plans to launch new policies for the manufacturing industry, despite US President Donald Trump’s pledge to boost America’s domestic manufacturing capabilities and encourage companies to move bring overseas production back to its own shores.
”About Trump’s plan to revitalise US manufacturing and tell US companies to move back to the country in order to create more jobs, we will keep a close eye on it. However, that will not have any impact on China’s plan to develop the manufacturing industry,” Miao Wei, minister of industry and information technology, said in a press conference in Beijing on Friday.
Since the implementation of the “China Manufacturing 2025” strategy in 2015, the government has made significant achievement and the strategy will go ahead as planned, he said.
“[The government] has no plans to launch new policies, and there will not be any new measures for the manufacturing industry that in related to President Trump’s measures,” Miao said.
The China Manufacturing 2025 strategy was first proposed by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in 2015 as a 10-year road map to build up China’s manufacturing power.
In the US, President Trump has set a goal to boost the country’s manufacturing industry as part of his economic plans. With a target to create 25 million jobs over 10 years, including the return of good-paying factory positions, he has called for companies to move their production back to US from countries including China.
He has proposed tax breaks for investment in new machinery and equipment, while he has also vowed to build more roads and infrastructure. On the other hand, President Trump has also said that he would consider slapping tariffs on goods imported from China.
Yet Miao stressed that companies have their own considerations in choosing the location of their production plants.
“This is up to the company to decide where to set up a factory, this is not decided by a government or an authority,” he said.
The industry chain of China’s manufacturing is more comprehensive and the production cost is relatively low, these are some factors that companies will take into consideration, Miao said.
China is known as “the world’s factory” because of the intensive labour supply and low labour cost.
Miao said China’s opening-up policies are aimed at attracting foreign companies and investment to China. The government also encourages “going out”, a euphemism for Chinese companies to look to global markets, as their standards are catching up with global counterparts in various aspects. he said.
“However, no matter companies are ‘going out’ or coming into China, it is up to their own decision,” Miao said.
