China | The Voldemort of economic plans

An initiative so feared that China has stopped saying its name

“Made in China 2025” has been a success, but at what cost?

Electric vehicles in a factory car park in Chongqing, China
Photograph: Getty Images
|BEIJING

LIKE LORD VOLDEMORT from Harry Potter, “Made in China 2025” is an initiative which induces so much fear and loathing abroad that Chinese officials dare not speak its name. The plan, introduced a decade ago, called for pouring money and resources into dozens of industries. The goal was to turn China into a green and innovative “manufacturing power”, one that relied less on labour and Western supply chains, and more on automation and new home-grown technologies. This was Xi Jinping’s vision for the Chinese economy.

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This article appeared in the China section of the print edition under the headline “The consequences of success”

From the January 18th 2025 edition

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