(Visual Capitalist)
China and manufacturing dominance together are words easily believed, but this wasn’t always the case.
The world’s manufacturer didn’t always make—quite literally—everything. This visualization projects the change in manufacturing value added (MVA) by country from 2000 to 2030.
Data is sourced from the UN Industrial Development Organization, as of November 2024.
Economic Reforms and Exports Drove China’s Boom
Back in 2000, China accounted for only 6% of global manufacturing value added (MVA), easily eclipsed by manufacturing giants like the U.S., Japan, and Germany, not to mention a host of other high income countries.
All of that changed when China joined the WTO in 2001, giving it better trade deals with other members.
At the same time the government significantly opened up the economy, allowing foreign direct investment into several key sectors, prompting a take off in new business growth.
Previous decades of economic reforms—transforming the country from an agrarian society to an industrial one—and mix of free-market socialism had primed the country to emerge as a global manufacturer.
A vast skilled workforce, which is far more affordable than those in high income countries, helped supercharge growth.
At one point in the mid-2000s, exports accounted for a full-third of China’s GDP. And these exports covered everything: electronics, machinery, consumer goods, textiles, even something as specific as shipbuilding.
By 2030, the UN projects that China will account for 45% of global manufacturing value added (MVA), far away the highest share held by a single country.
The U.S., at 11% is expected to be a distant second.