China ranked fourth in the world in manufacturing development in 2023, according to the 2024 China Manufacturing Power Development Index Report released on Monday.
The report, presented by the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the National Manufacturing Strategy Advisory Committee and other relevant departments, provides an in-depth analysis of the development of the manufacturing industries in major countries worldwide, with a focus on trends and major new features in China.
According to the report, China's manufacturing development power index showed an overall positive trend, with its global competitiveness on the rise and notable achievements in areas such as quality improvement, efficiency enhancement, and green, low-carbon development.
The Manufacturing Power Development Index is made up of five sub-indices: scale development, quality efficiency, structural optimization, innovation development, and sustainable development. These metrics comprehensively reflect the strength of a country's manufacturing industry.
According to the report, in 2023, China ranked fourth in the world in terms of the manufacturing development index. While the growth rate of China's manufacturing sector slowed, its overall scale continued to expand.
China represented the second-highest increase in the world in terms of the quality efficiency index, particularly in three key indicators that reflect the efficiency and effectiveness of manufacturing - manufacturing value-added rate, labor productivity in manufacturing, and sales profit margin. For the first time in years, all three of these core metrics saw simultaneous improvement.
The report highlighted that China claimed the largest year-on-year improvement in the sustainability sub-index, marking a major highlight in China's manufacturing sector in 2023.
"Among the five indicators, the three indexes of quality efficiency, innovation development, and sustainable development all showed steady increase or growth in a particular manner. This actually indicates that our high-quality development strategy had achieved initial results, marking a shift from focusing on scale to emphasizing quality and efficiency. Our technological innovation also exerted effects, and our transformation paced up. Our focus on high-quality manufacturing was more and more solid," said Wang Decheng, a member of the National Manufacturing Strategy Advisory Committee.
The report also noted some declines in certain sub-indices of China's manufacturing power index, and experts pointed out that the industry faces various challenges. Nevertheless, they emphasized that the overall favorable conditions outweigh the negative factors, the trend of economic recovery remains strong, and the long-term outlook for China's manufacturing sector continues to be positive.
According to the latest data, in the first three quarters of 2024, China's manufacturing value-added grew by 5.2 percent year on year, exceeding the GDP growth rate by 0.4 percentage points. In November 2024, this growth rate further went up to 6.0 percent, showing an overall improvement over 2023.
China ranks 4th in manufacturing development index: report
A program produced by China Global Television Network (CGTN) aired on Saturday presented the unerasable evidence of crimes committed by Yoshijiro Umezu, a top leader in Japan's wartime military during the invasion of China, exposing the history that must never be forgotten.
Umezu was a notorious name deeply involved in Japan's war of aggression against China. As Chief of the Army General Staff, he was closely linked to atrocities like the brutal policy of "Three Alls" - kill all, burn all, and loot all - and the inhuman experiments of Unit 731.
Umezu was dispatched to China in March 1934. His role spanned the entire course of Japan's aggression, from the invasion of northeast China to the collapse of the Pacific War.
In May 1935, Umezu presented then-acting chairman of the Beiping Military Council, He Yingqin, with an outrageous demand to expel Chinese forces from North China. He then redeployed Japanese troops south from northeast China, coercing He into signing the He–Umezu Agreement, effectively opening the door for Japan's full-scale military expansion into North China.
In 1938, Umezu became commander of the Japanese First Army. He enforced the savage "Three Alls" policy, inflicting immense suffering on the Chinese people.
Statistics show that during the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, as many as 7 million civilians in North China were killed under the "Three Alls" policy. Umezu became known among the Chinese as the "Demon of the Three Alls."
One of the most heinous units Japan deployed in China was Unit 731. When it was first established, the unit had no official designation. It was Umezu, then commander of the Kwantung Army, who granted it its code number and helped expand its operations. That's why he is widely regarded as the man behind Unit 731.
At least tens of thousands of Chinese, Soviet and Korean civilians, and Allied prisoners of war were used as live subjects in human experiments, dying in extreme pain and cruelty. This chapter of history remains an indelible scar on the conscience of human civilization.
"The Japanese biological warfare units expanded with the direct involvement of the Japanese government, the military high command, the Kwantung Army, and the medical community. This fully demonstrates that Japan's biological warfare was a premeditated, organized, and state-led crime, carried out from the top down," said Jin Chengmin, director of the Exhibition Hall of Crime Evidence of Japanese Army Unit 731.
As a loyal executor of Japan's expansionist militarist strategy, Umezu did not limit his crimes to China. In 1941, having previously taken part in the Russo-Japanese War, Umezu organized large-scale military exercises targeting the Soviet Union as a hypothetical enemy. He continued to train Kwantung Army forces and sent large numbers of elite troops to the Pacific Theater.
On the morning of September 2, 1945, the ceremony formally marking Japan's unconditional surrender was held on the deck of the USS Missouri.
After the ceremony and the final victory in the world's anti-fascist war, Umezu was put on trial at the Tokyo Tribunal, among the highest-ranking military officers. He was convicted as a Class-A war criminal and sentenced to life imprisonment in November 1948.
Although he escaped execution, justice was not denied forever. On January 8, 1949, Umezu died of rectal cancer in Sugamo Prison in Tokyo without ever admitting guilt.
After his death, Umezu's spirit tablet was enshrined at Yasukuni Shrine, alongside 14 Class-A war criminals. For years, despite strong opposition from Asian countries and criticism from the international community, some Japanese right-wing politicians have repeatedly visited the shrine.
This is far more than a so-called act of mourning. It is a blatant challenge to historical verdicts, a deep insult to the victims of aggression, and a dangerous attempt to rehabilitate militarist crimes.
"History and reality both prove that returning to militarism is a dead end. Completely breaking with militarism and sincerely pursuing peaceful development is a crucial precondition for Japan to gain the trust and understanding of the international community, especially its Asian neighbors, and is also the correct choice in the interests of the Japanese people," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Guo Jiakun said at a recent press briefing in Beijing.
CGTN program exposes undeniable history of Yoshijiro Umezu’s war crimes in China
