In a recent article in the Washington Post, “Why China won’t own next generation manufacturing,” the author Vivek Wadhwa discusses China’s new 10-year plan, called “Made in China 2025.” The plan aims to modernize China’s manufacturing with advanced technologies such as robotics, 3-D printing, cloud computing, and big data.

China has committed $150 billion to this gigantic modernization scheme. “But no matter how much money it spends,” Mr. Wadhwa writes, “China simply can’t win with next-generation manufacturing.”

The reason? Chinese robots are poor quality, Wadhwa argues, and they cannot be more productive than American robots. And most importantly, the Chinese workforce lacks the skills to perform in an advanced manufacturing setting.

But I would not write off China’s ability to advance its technologies as well as its workforce so quickly. There are signs that Chinese industries are catching up with, and in some cases, even exceeding the West. Continue reading Why China Can Dominate Next-Generation Manufacturing