Recently, the second plenary session of the Fourth Session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee was held in Beijing. Miao Wei, member of the 19th CPPCC Central Committee, deputy director of the CPPCC Economic Committee, and former minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out in his speech that in the global manufacturing industry In the four-tier echelon pattern, China is in the third echelon, and it will take at least 30 years to achieve the goal of a manufacturing power. One stone hit a thousand layers of waves, and this remark triggered extensive discussion and reflection.
As the world's second largest economy, China occupies a pivotal position in the global manufacturing field. However, many people believe that although China has the name of a manufacturing power, it still lacks the reality of a manufacturing power. For example, in the shipbuilding industry, my country is heavily dependent on imports for some core equipment and core accessories. Although some of them can be produced, but the quality is not good enough, they still rely on foreign products. In the eyes of people who are not familiar with the situation, China's ship exports are the world's first, and it is impossible to rely heavily on imports for accessories. But this is the fact. In terms of key technologies, core processes and accessories, we still have a big gap with foreign countries, and we are also faced with many "stuck necks" that require us to overcome difficulties.
For another example, in the field of mobile phones, Huawei, which has always been proud of, once occupied the first position in the global market. However, due to the crazy suppression by the United States, Huawei’s smartphone shipments in the third quarter of 2020 fell sharply by 21%. Give up the status of the world's number one smartphone. So far, China has only one brand, Huawei, among the top 100 global brands of Forbes, but it has been ranked 90th in the past two years. If Huawei falls out of the top 100 in the future, it will obviously put China's manufacturing industry into an even more embarrassing situation. The fundamental reason is that Huawei's mobile phone chips have always relied on imports, so the US boycott of Huawei is like a snake's seven inches.
Whether it is the experience of Chinese ships or Huawei, it is a true portrayal of today's manufacturing in China. Large but not strong. Although relying on the advantages of scale and low-price competition model can make Chinese-made products marketed globally, we are still at the end of the entire manufacturing industry, mainly engaged in processing and assembly, and its profit margin is very limited.
The reason why China "has become a big manufacturing country, but is not yet a strong manufacturing country", there are four main shortcomings:
One is the weak ability of independent innovation. Most equipment has a low level of R&D and design, insufficient test and detection methods, and lack of key common technologies. The technological innovation of enterprises is still in the stage of following imitation, and the "black box" of the underlying technology has not yet been broken through; the second is the lack of basic supporting capabilities; the third is the quality and reliability of products in some areas to be improved. Some products and technical standards are imperfect, poor practicability, and cannot keep up with the speed of new product development. In addition, brand building is lagging behind. According to incomplete statistics, the ownership of 90% of well-known trademarks in the world's equipment manufacturing industry is in the hands of developed countries. Fourth, the industrial structure is unreasonable. Low-end overcapacity and high-end overcapacity are insufficient. High-precision products and major technical equipment that truly reflect comprehensive national strength and international competitiveness are insufficiently produced.
To this end, the State Council issued the "Made in China 2025" notice in May 2015, proposing to implement the "three-step" strategy, and strive to achieve the strategic goal of a manufacturing power through three decades of hard work.
In the first stage, by 2025, the composite index will be close to the level of manufacturing powers when Germany and Japan achieved industrialization, and industrialization has basically been achieved. China's manufacturing industry has entered the ranks of manufacturing powers and the second square of world manufacturing powers. Step up to a new level in terms of innovation ability, overall labor productivity, integration of industrialization and industrialization, and green development, forming a group of multinational companies and industrial clusters with strong international competitiveness, and significantly improving their position in the global industrial division of labor and value chain .
In the second stage, by 2035, the composite index will reach the level of the forefront of the second phalanx of the world's manufacturing powers, and become a veritable manufacturing power. Significant progress has been made in innovation-driven, advantageous industries have formed global innovation leadership capabilities, and the overall competitiveness of the manufacturing industry has been significantly enhanced.
In the third stage, by 2045, or even the 100th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the composite index rate will be slightly higher than that of the second phalanx countries, entering the first phalanx of the world's manufacturing powers, and becoming a manufacturing power with global leading influence. The main areas of the manufacturing industry have innovative leadership capabilities and obvious competitive advantages, and have established a world-leading technological system and industrial system.
So, what can we do from showing great powers to showing great powers?
As an important part of Chinese manufacturing, China's display industry has achieved impressive results in recent years. Among them, China's LED display application industry has a global market share of more than 80%. China is also the world's largest LED producer, but there is still a way to go before a powerful country. According to Li Dongsheng, the founder of TCL, the overall output value of new displays in my country has now exceeded 400 billion yuan, and the scale of the LCD industry is the largest in the world. However, in terms of new display technology, it needs to work hard to change from a "display power" to a "display power". The "display power" is mainly reflected in technological progress and the development of new product technologies.
At present, the new display technology represented by Mini/Micro LED is most likely to change the technical route of China's display landscape. Previously, China's status as a display power was not entirely based on technological innovation, but was related to the selective abandonment strategy of some international manufacturers. For example, South Korea's Samsung announced last year to withdraw from the traditional LCD field and fully shifted to new display fields such as OLED. In terms of technology, China has been in a "following" state before. Now, with the new display Mini/Micro LED technology as the demarcation point, China is likely to change this situation. At present, China is basically at the same starting line as other display powers in the world. With more than 40 years of accumulated experience, China has every opportunity to compete with international brands through technological innovation. It is understood that in order to seize this opportunity, China invested 39.4 billion yuan in Mini/Micro LED projects last year, and the amount of funds invested in the first half of this year continued to increase. In the future, whether we can become a "blockbuster" and become a display powerhouse depends on new display fields such as Mini/Micro LED.
However, it is not enough to choose the right field of development and invest huge amounts of money. At present, China still lacks talents in chip development at the source, and there is a mixture of fish and dragons, and the degree of concentration is not high. The state can be described as “generous” in terms of supporting policies, and relevant Chinese enterprises have also made great progress, but there is still a lack of basic research. In recent years, universities and enterprises have also become aware of related problems, and basic research and development jointly conducted by schools and enterprises has gradually improved.
Innovation is the only way out. At present, my country's display industry is "large but not complete, but not excellent". The crux of the problem lies in the lack of innovation. Whether it is brand, patented technology or development concept, there is still a big gap with international brands. For example, in the chip field, although China has made great progress in recent years and already has several domestic chip companies, it still needs to work harder to supply more than well-known international companies.
Of course, we should not be completely discouraged. China's high-speed rail is a good example. Now China's high-speed rail has become a diplomatic business card. The core technology is independently developed by China, which shows that the Chinese people are still not inferior to foreign countries in terms of innovation. New display core technology breakthroughs. At present, many international brands have entered the Mini/Micro LED field across the border, and the competition is fierce.
In recent years, in the display industry, there has been an ongoing discussion about "changing careers" or "changing careers and upgrading", which fully reflects the industry's sense of concern. On the eve of the upcoming explosion of new display technology, at the critical moment of the transformation of new and old kinetic energy, if we fall behind, we will face being eliminated by the times. The industry is currently facing the urgent task of eliminating outdated production capacity and optimizing the industrial structure. Some companies have already taken action and achieved good results.
In the future, we need to continue to increase efforts in display technology innovation, basic theoretical research, process improvement, brand and channel expansion, etc., and strive to solve our big but not strong problems during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, so that China can truly dominate the world.
