ABSTRACT
In the last decades, China has emerged as an economic dragon on the world stage. The country is now often referred to as the ‘workshop of the world’: in many industries, China has proved to be highly competitive as a location for production. The industrial development has entailed a massive migration from the countryside to cities, and has lifted millions of people out of poverty. The major economic achievements of China are ascribed to the country’s vast human resources potential, its massive investments in infrastructure and its carefully planned process of integration into the global economy. In the last few years, China is entering a new stage and actively seeks to raise its profile as a leader in research and development. The Chinese government has designed a variety of measures to achieve these goals. Among other things, it has committed itself to raise expenditures on education and R&D, boost innovation in specific sectors, attract knowledge-intensive investments from abroad and, last but not least, learn from foreign knowledge and expertise. One of the industries targeted by the Chinese government is the automotive industry. The Chinese government has formulated the ambition to develop a full-fledged Chinese automotive industry, including Chinese brands, design and technology, and has committed substantial resources to realise this ambition. These ambitions and policies are formulated by the national government, but their implementation has an important regional dimension. There are just a handful of regions where the automotive industry is significant. This chapter describes and analyses the dynamics of the automotive industry in the most important one: Shanghai. Over the last decades, Shanghai has emerged as the largest and most advanced automotive cluster in China. Using our conceptual framework, we describe and analyse the development of this remarkable cluster.
