NIST AMS 600-17, a review of China's Manufacturing Innovation Centers (MICs), describes the status of the country's flagship manufacturing innovation program. At least 33 MICs have been established to date, suggesting that China is within reach of its goal of 40 MICs by 2025, as stated in the "Made in China 2025" national strategy. This review discusses the motivation, structure, and results of the implementation of the Manufacturing Innovation Centers so far, particularly with respect to their 14th Five-Year Plan, and compares China's approach to manufacturing innovation with that of the Manufacturing USA program and Germany's Fraunhofer Institutes. China views strategic investment in critical advanced manufacturing technologies as a focal point for furthering national interest and technical leadership.

Executive Summary: The Chinese Manufacturing Innovation Centers (MICs) were initiated in 2015 in response to the U.S. Manufacturing USA program, drawing inspiration also from Germany’s Industrie 4.0. [1, 2] China established the centers to be distinct vehicles for manufacturing innovation with the end goal of reaching world leadership in 10 key target industry sectors. The centers would receive central government support to become a technical hub. The center then connects and colocates with state key laboratories and other resources to form manufacturing ecosystems for the key industries.

"Made in China 2025," released in 2015, further solidified the MIC plans. Made in China 2025 was an initiative to comprehensively strengthen the Chinese industry, starting with a 300 billion U.S. dollar (USD) investment over 2016-2020. [3] The plan outlined a path to approach 80 % production by domestic supply chains by 2025 in a range of industries that rely on advanced manufacturing technologies, including aerospace, semiconductors, robotics, pharmaceuticals, and electric vehicles (EVs). The plan identified a number of technology barriers for each manufacturing sector, which became the technical focus of each MIC. As such, the MICs play a strategic role in establishing an innovation hub for each enabling technology.

China has made rapid progress toward its goals. The first MIC was established in 2016, and as of early 2025, China had created at least 33 MICs. The China MIC model adapts elements from the Manufacturing USA design, with environments for industry and academia to collaborate on applied research on promising advanced manufacturing technologies.

Topics for the centers are determined by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and are similar to high critical technology priorities in other manufacturing countries. All topics are consistent with the 10 target industry sectors identified in the Made in China 2025 initiative. Investments in several key industries, such as electric vehicles and renewable energy/photovoltaics, have led to dramatic increases in market share for these technologies. The extent of success in other crucial technologies, such as biopharmaceutical manufacturing, is more difficult to document.

China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, spanning 2021 to 2025, continued this large-scale investment. [4] Manufacturing again was a major topic, with a focus on reducing foreign dependency on critical components such as integrated circuits, as well as global leadership in advanced manufacturing. With implications of the growth of these innovation programs on production and foreign trade, the Chinese Manufacturing Innovation Centers are moving forward in key technology focus areas of pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, and semiconductors.