Made in China 2025's goals include increasing the Chinese-domestic content of core materials to 40 percent by 2020 and 70 percent by 2025.[8] To help achieve independence from foreign suppliers, the initiative encourages increased production in high-tech products and services, with its semiconductor industry central to the industrial plan, partly because advances in chip technology may "lead to breakthroughs in other areas of technology, handing the advantage to whoever has the best chips – an advantage that currently is out of Beijing’s reach."[4][9][10][11]
Since 2018, following a backlash from the United States, Europe, and elsewhere, the phrase "MIC 2025" has been de-emphasized in government and other official communications,[12][13] while the program remains in place. The Chinese government continues to invest heavily in identified technologies.[12] In 2018, the Chinese government committed to investing roughly US$300 billion into achieving the industrial plan.[11] In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, at least an additional $1.4 trillion was also invested into MIC 2025 initiatives.[14] Given China's current middle income country status, the practicality of its disproportionate expenditure on pioneering new technologies has been called into question.[15][16]
On October 2024, Bloomberg published an article titled, "US Efforts to Contain Xi’s Push for Tech Supremacy Are Faltering" and indicated that China's "Made in China 2025" initiative has largely succeeded, with China achieving a leadership position in five out of 13 key technologies, which includes high speeds rail, graphene, unmanned aerial vehicles, solar panels, and electric vehicles and lithium batteries, as well as rapid progress in seven others. It concludes that this progress underscores China's increasing influence in industries critical to future economic growth.[17]