China's emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut: Is it overstated?

China's emergence as a manufacturing juggernaut selling so many goods to so many countries has attracted enormous attention from academics, policymakers, and the media. In this article, Behzad Kianian and Kei-Mu Yi put China's manufacturing performance into a broader context. They emphasize two key themes: The wages of China's manufacturing workers are rising rapidly; and China's production of export goods relies heavily on imported inputs and the final exported goods face large mark-ups in their destination markets. The first theme implies that China will lose global market share in some categories of goods. The second implies that China's trading relationship with many countries is complementary, not competitive, and that the omnipresence of China's goods exaggerates the extent of its manufacturing performance. The authors conclude that China's emergence as a global manufacturing power should not be overstated, and concerns that China will \\"take over\\" all manufacturing markets are unfounded.