China's Rise in the World ICT Industry
Industrial Strategies and the Catch-Up Development Model
China Policy Series

One of the most striking phenomena of China?s remarkable economic growth is that its huge volume of exports are becoming high-tech. China is now the world's largest Information and Communication Technology (ICT) exporter, having overtaken Japan and the European Union in 2003 and the United States in 2004. China's ICT industry is also the largest manufacturing sector within the Chinese economy. This book examines how China has attained this leading position and presents one of the first accounts of China?s ICT development model with specific reference to the experiences of East Asian 'tigers'. It shows how the development of the industry was military-driven before 1978, and how subsequently Chinese policymakers, struggling with domestic market reform and challenged by trade liberalisation and globalisation, managed to push through ICT development strategies. Overall, it discusses the debates between policymakers as to the most appropriate economic development strategy for 'catching-up' and demonstrates how China moved away from the across-the-board protectionist and interventionist industrial policies pursued by many developing countries, but has not wholeheartedly followed the neo-liberal free trade and market polices favoured by the World Bank, WTO and IMF. By doing so, it sheds light on the limitations of China?s strategies moving forward, and identifies policy lessons for other developing countries.

Part 1: Industrial and Trade Development: The Role of the State during Globalization 1. Introduction 2. Trade and Market Liberalisation, Economic Growth, and Industrial Policies: The State Role in Economic Development Part 2: The Development Pathway of the ICT Manufacturing Industry 1949-1993: Creation, Reform Rationales and Development Context 3. The Creation of the Electronics Industry: Military Driven Development 1949-1978 4. The "Opening Up" Reform and State-led Growth 1978-1993 Part 3: Making the ICT sector a ‘pillar’ industry: China’s Catching-up strategies since the early 1990s 5. Big Business Strategy and Small and Medium Enterprise Strategy 6. "Attracting-in" and "Walking-out" Trade and Investment Strategy 7. The "Breaking-Through" Strategy of China’s ICT Industry: Dynamic Technological Catching-up and Challenges in Developing the Semiconductor Sector Part 4: Rethinking the Notion of State Intervention: Lessons and Limitations from the Chinese Experience Challenges in Developing the Semiconductor Sector 8. The Development Model for the Chinese ICT Manufacturing Industry 9. Theory and Policy Lessons: Rethinking China’s ICT Development Experience

Lutao Ning is a political economist at the Department of East Asian Studies, Cambridge University. He was a visiting scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Science and Peking University. His research interests include globalization and industrial and trade policies in developing countries.