Made in China 2.0 – Kaiser Kuo

 

Kaiser Kuo

A decade ago, China launched its ambitious “Made in China 2025”. And while the phrase has disappeared, the industrial ambitious have no, writes China veteran Kaiser Kuo at the World Economic Forum. Today, that strategy appears to be entering a new phase — one we might call “Made in China 2.0,” he says.

Kaiser Kuo:

Launched a decade ago, “Made in China 2025” appeared to many as the emblem of China’s vaulting industrial ambitions: a state-driven roadmap to catapult the nation from the world’s factory floor to the apex of advanced manufacturing.

Though the slogan itself quietly vanished from official Chinese discourse under international scrutiny, the underlying agenda never did. Instead, its objectives evolved, were rebranded under banners like “dual circulation” and “high-quality development,” and ultimately seeped into the marrow of China’s industrial strategy.

Today, that strategy appears to be entering a new phase — one we might call “Made in China 2.0.” While it lacks a formal label, its contours are increasingly clear: an AI-augmented, green-energy-powered, self-reliance-oriented transformation of the world’s most formidable industrial base. In everything from electric vehicles and solar panels to humanoid robots and enterprise-grade AI systems, China is defining the terms of competition.

This transformation is unfolding amid profound global shifts. Fragmenting supply chains, rising techno-nationalism, and concerns over overcapacity have created a contested landscape for global manufacturing. Yet within that turbulent context, China has continued to expand its industrial and technological footprint. The question is no longer whether China can innovate, but what kind of innovation ecosystem it is building — and whether it might constitute an alternative paradigm to the liberal market model.

More at the World Economic Forum.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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China’s corporate forces underlining its economic strength – Kaiser Kuo

 

Kaiser Kuo

China veteran Kaiser Kuo examines the ten Chinese companies, which are booming in China’s economy, despite the pressure it is under. Most names might be new to the non-Chinese, but these ten are worth putting on your China watch list, if they are not yet, he writes at the World Economic Forum: CATL (宁德时代), Envision Energy (远景能源), Haier (海尔集团), Huawei (华为), JinkoSolar (晶科能源), LONGi Green Energy Technology (隆基绿能科技股份有限公司), Meituan (美团), Pop Mart (泡泡玛特), Seres Group (赛力斯), Xiaohongshu (小红书 / RedNote),

Kaiser Kuo on Haier:

Status: Public (SSE: 600690), also listed in Hong Kong

Founded: 1984 by Zhang Ruimin

Headquarters: Qingdao, Shandong province

Main Businesses: Smart appliances, IoT, home automation solutions, digital factories

Why It Matters:
The oldest company on our list, Qingdao-based Haier revolutionized Chinese entrepreneurship — famously when its CEO used a sledgehammer to destroy a defective fridge in the year of its founding. In the 40 years since, it’s grown from a white goods company known mainly for its dormitory refrigerators into a global IoT appliance leader, integrating AI across its platforms and operating micro-factories in over 20 global markets while targeting zero-carbon operations.

What You Probably Didn’t Know:
Haier spun off nearly a dozen micro-factories: small, flexible production units focused on local demand and customization. In Qingdao, one “dark factory” — so-called because there’s no need for lights in this almost fully robotic operation — produces washing machines and fridges autonomously, with no more than three human overseers.

Think of it as…
GE Appliances meets Bosch’s precision engineering, with a dash of Netflix’s AI-driven personalization and modular, user-centric flair.

Nine more at the World Economic Forum.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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How China became rich in a 40-year transformation – Kaiser Kuo

 

Kaiser Kuo

How did China change from an economic laggard into a booming country? China veteran Kaiser Kuo dives into the country’s 40-year transformation for the World Economic Forum. For example, how it succeeded in becoming a digital giant.

Kaiser Kuo:

The Chinese leadership under Xi Jinping has as its current focus the development of “new quality productive forces.” What this means is that innovation will, it is hoped, become the main driver of growth, with an emphasis on quality growth over quantity or rapid expansion. This translates more concretely into a renewed emphasis on basic science, “hard” tech like new materials and semiconductors, artificial intelligence, supply chain efficiency and rationalization, and green and sustainable development.

Xi Jinping would like to see physicists doing physics, not designing sophisticated financial products or social media advertising algorithms. Whether these strategies will succeed in navigating China through its next phase of development remains an open question, but if China’s past record is any indication, one might reconsider betting against it.

Other developing countries might look to China’s experience for lessons, but the unique combination of historical context, cultural factors, and policy decisions that shaped China’s rise may not be easily replicable. When its own rhetoric speaks so often of “Chinese characteristics,” it may be less likely that China will seek to push its own developmental model, though doubtless some of its features will prove attractive. As China continues to evolve, the world will be watching closely to see how it addresses these challenges and what new pathways it charts for future growth.

Those challenges are numerous: Environmental degradation, rising labour costs, and an aging population pose significant hurdles. Maintaining the stability that has been so crucial for China thus far, while allowing for experimental approaches, improvisation, and creative thinking that will drive economic dynamism in the future will require careful balancing.

Much more at the World Economic Forum.

Kaiser Kuo is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers’ request form.

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Three trends shaping China’s development – Kaiser Kuo

 

Kaiser Kuo

China expert Kaiser Kuo attended this year’s World Economic Forum in Davos and wrote up the three trends shaping China’s development for the Weforum. Including how China is managing multiple transitions, its role in the global industry, and the country’s latest breakthroughs in artificial intelligence.

Kaiser Kuo:

The electric vehicle sector emerged as a prime example of China’s evolving role in global industry. Pan Jian, co-chairman of Chinese EV battery giant CATL, emphasized the need for global collaboration: “It’s not going to be a one-country effort in terms of EVs. It’s going to be a global effort.” He highlighted China’s success in fostering a robust EV ecosystem through what he called a “perfect marriage between the public and private sectors,” while noting that software integration has been crucial to China’s EV success: “In China, we no longer call them EVs; we call them EIVs — where the ‘I’ stands for ‘intelligent.’ The ‘I’ is what truly makes the difference. Without the intelligence aspect, EV penetration in China would never have exceeded 30%.”

More trends at the Weforum.

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China has a tough time ahead in 2022 – Jim Rogers

 

Jim Rogers

Even if China does all right when all its customers have a problem, it still has a problem and has a tough 2022 ahead, says super investor Jim Rogers in an analysis of Xi Jinping’s speech at the World Economic Forum, for state broadcaster CGTN.

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China is not yet embracing economic liberalism - Victor Shih

Victor Shih

President Xi Jinping´s speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos has been greeted with enthusiasm by global corporate leaders, confronted with opposite movements from Donald Trump and the Brexit. But political analyst Victor Shih warns it does not mean China is heartily embracing economic liberalism, he tells the LA Times.

LA Times:

“China certainly seems to be taking advantage of the U.S.’ increasingly shaky commitment to global free trade to portray itself as a potential new leader,” said Victor Shih of UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy. 

The country last year launched an international lending organization, which pours millions into ramshackle roads and water pumps. China continues to expand its “One Belt, One Road” initiative, an effort to revive the ancient Silk Road trade routes and spread its influence west. 

Chinese leaders have increased the nation’s aggressiveness in the South China Sea’s disputed waters through artificial islands and the installation of military infrastructure. And they recently offered an alternative to a U.S.-backed Pacific trade pact that withered last year, handing the country an even greater voice in Asian economic affairs. 

But Shih cautioned against assuming the communist nation had fully embraced economic liberalism. He noted that China has pursued “aggressive mercantilist” policies and advocated replacing foreign imports with “made in China” products for more than a decade. Such a policy is far harder to impose in the U.S., he said, despite Trump’s rhetoric. 

“Other industrial economies will find China a troublesome trading partner for some time to come,” he said.

More in the LA Times.

Victor Shih is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

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At Davos, Xi Jinping emerged as a global player - Arthur Kroeber

Arthur Kroeber

While the jury is still out on what China´s role will be at the post-Brexit Trump era of global trade, president Xi Jinping did emerge as a global player at the World Economic Forum, tells leading economist Arthur Kroeber at Bloomberg.

Bloomberg:

The Chinese leader has sought to leverage his country’s economic strength into diplomatic clout with multinational initiatives such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and his signature plan to expand infrastructure along ancient trading routes to Europe. At Davos, Xi announced a global summit on the strategy for May, saying Chinese investment in more than 100 countries had surpassed $50 billion over the past three years. 

Arthur Kroeber, Beijing-based founding partner and managing director at Gavekal Dragonomics, said that provided Xi a platform to demonstrate his overseas clout back home, where the Chinese leader is preparing for a mid-term reshuffle of the party’s leadership ranks. 

“It’s in Xi’s interests to take every opportunity he can and present himself as this leader who is powerful, strong and visionary, to give himself some international prestige,” said Kroeber, author of “China’s Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know.” Xi’s appearance at Davos, which has previous been attended by China’s premiers, is “consistent with the notion that Xi is now the only major authorized spokesman for the whole country.” 

Xi urged other countries to also keep their doors open to Chinese investors, drawing another contrast with Trump, and said he had no plans to devalue the yuan in order to boost competitiveness.

More in Bloomberg.

Arthur Kroeber is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

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Growing pains of China´s shadow banking – Michael Justin Lee

Michael Justin Lee

At the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, shadow banking loomed as a threat over China´s economic future. Financial analyst Michael Justin Lee does not agree, he writes in the ChinaUSFocus. Yes, the country has growing pains, but is not on the way to collapse.

Michael Justin Lee:

My agreement does not extend to the (Davos) conclusion. The majority conclusion seems to be that China will implode from the weight of the shadow banking system’s problems, taking down first Asia with it, and then the rest of the world. Even after making full allowance for probable hyperbole at such a media event, I think the Davos grandees went too far. The worst of the possible outcomes can be ameliorated with simple openness and transparency and I think the Chinese know this. 

Market practitioners know that opacity and evasiveness about an economic problem makes it far worse. That’s a big no-no. Without open resources, the market has no chance to evaluate and discount the problem and therefore must assume the worst. 

China’s shadow banking problem has a bit of parallel with another topic discussed in Davos, Bitcoin. Bitcoin is a private market currency. It is not backed by the good faith and credit of the U.S. Treasury or of any other central bank. It is backed only by the trust that the market accords it. 

Actually, Bitcoin’s business model is not entirely new. Credit cards are also private market currencies. They are accepted for purchase because buying and selling parties trust their efficacy. The eventual success or failure of Bitcoin ultimately comes down to whether enough parties trust it, that is, accept it as a medium of exchange. The major credit card companies have earned that trust and therefore they are commonly accepted as currency despite not having been created by any sovereign authority. 

The same goes for China’s shadow banking system. Its success or failure also substantially depends on whether the market trusts it. There are other factors as well, but without the trust of the market, all of those other factors could not sustain it. Consider a run on a bank. If I distrust a bank, I would withdraw my money immediately. If everyone else does similarly, a bank run results even if the distrust is unfounded. 

China needs to earn trust that is clearly absent right now and the first step would be a simple transparent admission of the troubling situation. Sweeping problems under the rug accomplishes nothing. Hoping that overall economic growth accelerates to such extent as to trivialize the problem also accomplishes nothing. Less than twenty years ago, some other countries right in China’s backyard experienced very great pain from trying that. China must surely have been watching.

More in the ChinaUSFocus.

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