China Center Chart Dive: Chinese manufacturing sector is less and less reliant on imported intermediate inputs

Chinese industrial policies promoting import substitution are substantively reshaping the country’s global value chains (GVCs) and have made China-based manufacturers (foreign and domestically owned) less and less reliant on intermediate inputs produced outside the country. These policies have helped Chinese manufacturers ascend the value curve, and, on the other hand, have basically forced the relocation of off-shore suppliers to China, even as China’s labor and industrial costs continue to rise. This trend portends difficult headwinds for off-shore suppliers to China-based manufacturers, future possible trade policy reactions notwithstanding.