“Made in China 2025”: Network Infrastructure, Intelligent Manufacturing, and Work

The paper will explore the transformation of production networks and value chains in the context of the accelerated introduction of advanced digitalized manufacturing, proposed by the Chinese Government ain its report “Made in China 2025” and in various documents related to China’s 13^th Five-Year Plan. Based on preliminary field studies in the Pearl-River Delta and other regions in China, we examine prospective pathways of industrial transformation related to the predominant regimes of production in core manufacturing industries (Lüthje, Luo and Zhang 2013). We can assume, that a distinctive Chinese pathway into intelligent manufacturing is emerging from this context, which is different from concepts and strategies in advanced industrial economies, such as Germany’s “Industry 4.0” or the “Advanced Manufacturing Initiative” in the U.S. The Chinese trajectory seems to be based on a specific combination of automation of vast manufacturing infrastructures with mostly low- to medium-tech products and processes with relatively low wages on the one hand, and a rapidly evolving, highly innovative sector of of Internet-based business-to-business and business-to-consumer services and platforms on the other. The largest actors in this field seem to emerge as the main “system integrators” in digitalized manufacturing. The paper will explore future research perspectives and concepts with regard to relevant theories in the field of global production networks, regulation and governance, and production politics, and outline major regulatory and political challenges for China’s industrial upgrading policies.