The Research On International Division Of Labor Of China’s Manufacturing Industry From The View Of Global Value Chain

With the continuous improvement of science and technology, productive forces have developed very fast. As a result, the progress of Economic Globalization and Integration has been accelerating. As the economic links between countries are closer, the international division of labor model has changed from inter-industry specialization to intra-industry specialization to intra-product specialization. The R&D, production and sales for one product could be completed by one corporation in one country in the past, now these segments are completed by different corporations from different countries. Product began to develop into vertical division of labor and formed specific model which is called global value chains (GVC). Enterprises from various countries connect each other through a multitude of global value chain, which forms a new system of international division of labor by means of connecting the upstream and downstream industry. Most countries around the world are integrated into GVC and seek their position by exploiting their advantage to the full.Manufacturing promotes the process of modernization in the current days and influences the human society a lot. Meanwhile, it is a vital component of industry in one country. Global value chains specialization has changed the layout of manufacturing, which brings an unprecedented opportunity for the growth of manufacturing in developing countries. Through participating in the value chains specialization, China has made great achievements and become the biggest manufacturing country in the world. But in the meanwhile, we should see it clearly that there exists many problems in development of manufacturing. We are big manufacturing country but not great one. China’s manufacturing industry is still situated at the position of low end in the global value chain. Therefore, some risks to the development of Chinese manufacturing followed with the value chain specialization. How to hedge some risks from the global value chain and maximize the development benefit has been a vitally important strategic goal on internationalization of China’s manufacturing industry.Using the methodology of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis, the paper will first give a brief introduction to the achievements and problems in China’s manufacturing industry. Then using the methodology of index analysis with the help of the GVC Participation, GVC Position and upstreamness, the paper will make a conclusion that China’s manufacturing industry is still situated at the position of low end in the global industrial chain, then provide some countermeasures and suggestions to improve China’s manufacturing industry position in the global industrial chain.Research outlines of this paper are as follows:first, this paper described our manufacturing industry in GVC briefly, mainly introducing the development and problem of the manufacturing industry; second, it analyzed its’participation into GVC by using GVC Participation index and GVC Position index; finally, it calculates the upstreamness of China’s manufacturing industries and compares with that of the developed countries to measure the China’s manufacturing industry position in the global value chain.The result shows that while China has an extensive participation in Global Production Networks (GPNs), the division status of China’s manufacturing industry and its sectors in GVC are presently at low levels whether judging by itself or from an international comparative perspective. The position of China’s manufacturing industries in international division of labor is obvious. The whole manufacturing industries are far behind of the developed countries, including low, middle-low, middle-high and high technology-level. Meanwhile, the industrial upstreamness of China has shown upward tendency and China’s position in the international division of labor has been worsen. But the position has been improved after 2009 gradually. While for China’s manufacturing industry, the"lock-in"effect of integrating into GVCs is very obvious. To make above conclusions based on industry upstreamness helps recognize the industry structure of our manufacturing. Therefore, it has policy significance on analyzing the GVC position of our manufacturing industry and seeking ways to manufacturing upgrading.Innovation point of this article is mainly as follows:first, this paper put forwards a new way to measure international division of labor more accurately. This paper aims to connect measuring trade added value and value chain structure together. Then comparing some index of Chinese manufacturing with those of other countries by calculating GVC Participation index, GVC Position index and industry upstreamness index, this paper measures the international division of labor of manufacturing eventually. Therefore, this paper not only measures the international division of labor of manufacturing from the new view of upstreamness, but also connects the two ways together. Second, this paper not only calculates the upstreamness of the whole manufacturing industry and compares with that of other developed countries, but also calculates that of its’ sectors to demonstrate the position of China’s manufacturing industries in international division of labor. Finally, based on the view of GVC and the quantitative analysis result, this paper put forwards available ways to promote the international division of labor of manufacturing from the view of enterprise and government, making the article timelier, more targeted and practical significance.