2. Huge manufacturing scale

China is the world’s largest manufacturer, with more than $2.2 trillion of value-add coming from manufacturing. It produces 80 percent of the world’s air-conditioners, 90 percent of the world’s personal computers, 75 percent of the world’s solar panels, 70 percent of the world’s mobile phones, and 63 percent of the world’s shoes. Manufacturing makes up 40 percent of the Chinese economy and directly employs 130 million people. But its traditionally low labor costs are rising, and an aggressive move from low-tech assembly to high-tech manufacturing is under way, as well as a shift from the more expensive coastal areas into cheaper central and western China.