China’s Manufacturing Dominance Leave Developing Nations With Fewer Paths to Grow

A worker is producing yarn in the workshop in Zaozhuang Economic Development Zone, Shandong, China on October 20, 2025. (Photo by Ji Zhe / CFoto / CFOTO via AFP)

Senior members of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) are gathering this week in Beijing for their annual plenum where they are going to put the finishing touches on the country’s next year five year plan (FYP).

This will be the 15th FYP since the Communist Party took power in 1949 and while most of it will focus on domestic policy initiatives, there’s at least one important factor that policymakers in the Global South should really pay close attention to: China is going to maintain its role as a manufacturing behemoth.

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by Eric Olander

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