Checking in on Made in China 2025

Back in 2015, the Chinese government drew up "Made in China 2025," a plan rallying the country to play catch-up in advanced tech through state subsidies and self-sufficiency. Let’s see how that’s going five years in.

Subsidies: Taiwan has lost more than 3,000 semiconductor engineers to China, Nikkei reported. The island territory, which has a strong chip fabrication base, has shed nearly 10% of its semiconductor R&D workforce in total.

• Why? Because the mainland's heavily subsidized chip industry is dangling unbeatable salaries and perks like employer-paid private school for the kids. China also recently announced a $31.6 billion state-backed semiconductor fund.

Self-sufficiency: "All of our 5G is now America-free," a Huawei official told the WSJ this week. The telco has weaned itself off U.S. parts for its 5G base stations and smartphone manufacturing.

The U.S still has a wide semiconductor lead. But on 5G, Washington's a little jelly of China. A new U.S. agency is earmarking portions of its $60 billion budget to steer global 5G purchasing away from Huawei and ZTE, Bloomberg reported yesterday. This war chest would benefit Nordic companies like Ericsson and Nokia, so it’s not really a “Made in U.S. 2025” initiative.