Yesterday
China’s ambitious “Made in China 2025” plan, initiated in 2015, set out to position the country as a leader in advanced manufacturing, covering ten strategic sectors, including robotics (which is #2 on the chart below).

After nearly a decade, the overall ten areas targeted by “Made in China 2025” have had their share of detractors, like Lee Branstetter, professor of economics and public policy at CMU’s Heinz College: “There was little evidence of increases in productivity, R&D expenditures, patenting, and profitability.”

Or, those on the other side like this recent Bloomberg piece, Almost 10 Years Later, China’s ‘Made In 2025’ Has Succeeded. Bloomberg cites China’s successes in  EVs, solar, and semiconductor production, 5G, commercial airlines, shipbuilding, artificial intelligence (AI), automation and robotics, many of which came into prominence over the decade 2015-2025. All the while, China was still juggling advances in aerospace, high-speed railways, and medicine, as well as massive civil engineering projects like dam building and the reclamation of vast stretches of desert. Not to mention the big kahuna, its Belt & Road Initiative.

Here at the end of 2024, who else on the planet has taken on such a bold, national plan? No one! Deng Xiaoping, the country’s former leader, was fond of saying that his people were at their best when taking on such colossal projects. Or, as he put it: “The only hard truth is development.” Maybe he was right. He died in 1997, a dozen years before “Made in China 2025” kicked off its massive undertaking.

Automated machine tools & robotics, #2 on the Strategic Priorities list (see chart) for “Made in China 2025” was one of the most prized by China because it was the hoped-for realization that could shift manufacturing from low-quality goods to higher-value products and services, making China a global leader in high-tech manufacturing.

Seems the developed world wasn’t overly anxious for China to arise to such an exalted level. It could continue to produce gazillions of Barbi Dolls or assemble boatloads of $700-dollar iPhones at four bucks a pop, but don’t you dare to aspire to leadership in high-tech manufacturing, which was the exact purpose of “Made in China 2025”.  Somewhere nearby, Deng Xiaoping was nodding with a big smile.

Domestically produced robots and robot-driven automation, developed, produced, and deployed by China, in China were the keys to success. Industrial robots were readily recognized as pivotal elements of China’s ambition to become a high-tech manufacturer and escape the middle-income trap of slow growth, stagnant or falling wages, and an economy lacking a bright future. Japan and Korea had barely escaped the trap. Shouldn’t China be the next East Asian country to succeed? With “Made in China 2025” industrial robotics received greater political support and public attention than any other manufacturing technology in China.

Feeling for the stones
In regard to building out a Chinese, domestic robot capability, “Made in China 2025” (announced in 2015), is part of an ever-expanding series of government announcements on robotics going back to the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), under the heading 12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Intelligent Manufacturing Technology. Two years later (2013), China became the largest buyer of industrial robots in the world, and still is. That was followed by Guidelines on Promoting the Development of the Industrial Robot Industry, in 2013. Then came Xi Jinping’s now-famous “robot revolution” speech, making the nation’s leader its foremost promoter and thus opening the floodgates for powerful financing options.

A year later, 2015, out pops “Made in China 2025”, then the Robotics Industry Development Plan (2016-2020), followed by the Robot + Application Action Plan that outlined the development of the industry (2023). In all, the decades-long process was like Deng Xiaoping’s frequent transformation quote of crossing the river by feeling for the stones.

SEE ALSO:“Development is the only hard truth.”—Deng Xiaoping
China Back in Business with Industrial Robots

Today: Then came China’s robots
With billions of dollars from direct and indirect financial support and grants from the central government and provincial governments, as well as low-cost loans, and assistance from China’s SOEs (State-Owned Enterprises), “Made in China 2025” (from 2013 to 2024) succeeded in standing up a credible robot industry as well as, by association, 10 high-quality cobot manufacturers. Collectively China’s Indigenous robot brands now account for 35% of all robot sales and deployments in China, up from 15% in 2015, but far off from the targeted, but unrealistic, 70%

And they are gaining in popularity!  The three biggest brands: Siasun Robot & Automation, Estun Automation, and EFORT Intelligent Equipment.

The popularity of domestically manufactured industrial robots in China can be attributed to a combination of cost competitiveness, innovation, and government policies favoring domestic suppliers. These brands compete not only against each other but also with well-established international robotics companies.  Domestic manufacturers like Siasun, Estun, and EFORT have carved out significant market share by offering tailored solutions and addressing the unique demands of the Chinese manufacturing landscape.