, Columnist
The One Bargaining Chip China Won't Surrender
The U.S. is using the trade war to push for an overhaul of Beijing’s industrial policy. That's unlikely to happen.
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As trade negotiations rattle on, you can bet the one area where China won’t budge is industrial policy.
The “Made in China 2025” program, a subsidy-driven blueprint to turn the country into a global powerhouse of advanced technologies, has been a point of contention since the trade war began. The Trump administration, and other foreign critics, say government handouts distort the market and throw up hurdles to access. China’s sheer size – accounting for about a quarter of the world’s manufacturing – means that economies of scale lower costs, which makes factories from Detroit to Dresden less competitive.