In USTR’s view, the initial goal of Made in China 2025 is to ensure, through various means, that Chinese companies develop, extract or acquire their own «indigenous» technology, intellectual property and know-how, as well as their own brands.

This impacts companies like Qualcomm Incorporated, for example, which derives a significant portion of its revenue from Chinese OEMs.

Some of Qualcomm’s customers in China have developed, and others may develop in the future, their own IC products and use these IC products in their devices instead of Qualcomm’s IC products, including due to pressure or policies from the Chinese government (whose Made in China 2025 campaign aims for 70% semiconductor self-sufficiency by 2025), concerns about loss of access to Qualcomm’s integrated circuit products as a result of actual, threatened or potential actions or policies of the U.S. or Chinese governments, including trade protection or national security policies or other reasons.

USTR’s view

Although purportedly intended only to increase industrial productivity through more advanced and flexible manufacturing techniques, Made in China 2025 is emblematic of China’s increasingly sophisticated and evolutionary approach to «indigenous innovation,» which is evidenced by numerous related and supporting industrial plans.

USTR’s view is that under China’s disruptive and anti-competitive approach to indigenous innovation, the common and overriding goal is to replace foreign technologies, products and services with Chinese technologies, products and services in the Chinese market through any means possible to enable Chinese companies to first dominate the Chinese market and then use that dominance as a springboard to conquer international markets.

Technologies

Made in China 2025, which represents the first 10 years of a 30-year strategy known as the Strong Manufacturing Nation Strategy, aims to strengthen Chinese companies in the 10 selected strategic sectors at the expense and to the detriment of foreign companies and their technologies, products and services through a multi-phased process over 10 years.

The next objective of Made in China 2025 is to replace foreign technologies, products and services with domestic technologies, products and services in the Chinese market.