You might have thought Beijing’s effort to attract global STEM talent would fire up legions of patriotic keyboard warriors eager to celebrate America’s relative decline. Instead, the launch of a new work visa has sparked an online furor that highlights the soft underbelly of China’s much-vaunted industrial policy.
The decade-long Made in China campaign to ensure the country can compete with the best of the West in 10 key industries — including robotics, electric vehicles and pharmaceuticals — has been largely successful. The technical prowess, exemplified by January’s DeepSeek moment, has ignited the stock market. But it’s not been enough to fill the gap left by the collapse of the property sector, which once accounted for as much as 32% of the economy.