Made in China: The Tech Charm-Offensive

Jemma Tan | China Fellow

Image sourced from Simon Kadula via Upsplash

Few things in life are as ubiquitous as the ‘Made in China’ (MIC) label. For people across the world, the cloth tag or letters on the bases of childhood toys and kitchen appliances alike have been a staple of daily life long before they could associate their origins with ‘China’. Yet despite China’s rate of technological advancement since the ‘MIC 2025’ initiative launched in 2015, it has weathered lingering perceptions of low-value added products and poor manufacturing standards. So when ZXMOTO became the first Chinese motorsports company to win the prestigious World Superbike Championship in March 2026, mainstream responses were equally laudatory and peppered with a level of incredulity.

This triumph is the latest across high-profile demonstrations of Chinese technological sophistication. While Western media has long fixated on whether Chinese technology can be trusted, its steady growth of exports to nations throughout the Global South has laid foundations for strong international ties. The MIC label is undergoing a generational rebranding that can redefine foreign policy relationships, consumer patterns and capture youth allegiances in critical, emerging regions within an increasingly multipolar global order.

MIC 2025: Has it Paid Off?

MIC 2025 has undoubtedly transformed China’s industrial landscape, though not without weathering intense scrutiny. Acting on Xi Jinping’s directive to revolutionise technology, China set out a dual goal to (1) achieve global leadership across ten high-value tech sectors and (2) achieve 70% self-sufficiency. It didn’t take long for MIC to attract the paranoia of the first Trump administration during the height of the US-China trade war, which attached 25% tariffs on goods containing technology “related to the 'Made in China 2025' program”. As China’s industrial dominance across MIC sectors grew more salient, US anxieties became one among many Western voices concerned by the perceived existential threat MIC posed to their domestic industries, a sentiment which, while headline-dominating, was quietly disregarded by Global South nations accelerating Chinese tech imports. Nevertheless, references to MIC 2025 gradually disappeared from CCP and media channels, facilitating a significant pivot from aspirations of autarky to focus on a more palatable missive of export-led credibility-building.

Even begrudging analysts acknowledge MIC’s establishment of technological dominance and global norm-setting. Yet the more consequential successes are reputational. MIC has facilitated a change of an entire generation of market leading Chinese companies no longer being positioned as cheap alternatives, but technologically superior. Increasingly unable to criticise their quality, the Western narrative framing of MIC has shifted to fixate on the threat such successes pose in intellectual property theft, market distortion and national security. While these concerns have genuine basis, such coverage has developed an analytical tunnel vision that neglects the export-led goodwill across the Global South.

The Geographical and Generational Rebrand

From West Africa to the South Pacific, Chinese tech exports are lowering political friction, building procurement habits and winning the hearts and minds of their citizens. Over the past two decades, Chinese companies have totalled more than $136 billion USD in annual investment in clean energy tech outside of China, lowering costs and fostering uptake of EVs and solar panels for historically underinvested regions. People across emerging markets are thus much more likely to purchase Chinese technology products than their developed nation counterparts, with considerably less reservations about quality or security. This increasing availability of Chinese tech, and particularly clean-tech, is actively bolstering bidirectional economic growth and soft power across these fast-growing, confident nations. As China’s Minister for Ecology and Environment opined at the COP30 in 2025, China is striving to build a reputation as a nation that pays ‘attention to the needs of developing countries’ by developing accessible, affordable and highly functional clean-technology. This attention was made all the more meaningful due to the COP30’s conspicuous lack of US participation as products from established brands like CATL, Trina and BYD were debuted to rapturous reception.

There is moreover a clear generational dimension to the MIC rebrand. Tech brands are exporting a cultural lifestyle to young people in the Global South. Chinese collectibles have already catalysed a cultural maelstrom among Gen-Z consumers through viral products like Labubus and Skullpanda. For Global South youth, the craze is extended to high-tech exports, notably smartphones or EVs from brands like Xiaomi, Huawei and Vivo. Southeast Asia, with a youthful population of 650 million, is increasingly the trialled tech battleground for hearts and minds. This growth of a digitally connected youth electorate united by their kinship with Chinese technology is being actively positioned as a gateway to a redefined, Chinese-led global order.

What Charming the Global South Actually Means

In an emerging multipolar world, the Global South is shaping to be the key swing constituency great powers are scrambling to win. Whoever sets technology standards, builds digital infrastructure, and supplies their energy systems will be who these emerging nations support and turn to. Technological dependency in particular is one of the most durable forms of alignment. Spare parts, software ecosystems, trained technicians and institutional knowledge create switching costs that incentivise maintaining a close relationship with China.

Middle powers' agency is better measured by convergence on digital infrastructure and trade than by conventional metrics of military or coercive strength, and it is across these new benchmarks that China is monopolising influence. As the US continues to undermine multilateralism which disproportionately impacts the Global South, China’s positioning as a non-conditional, technologically superior global partner only deepens their advantage.

For people across the Global South raised on globally lauded motorcycle races and dancing humanoid robots, perceptions of China have undergone a permanent rebrand. As they peel back wrapping paper on new toys or polish the windows of their electric vehicles, the MIC label has shed long embedded connotations of poor quality to conjure a carefully crafted image of a sophisticated nation central to the ongoing global energy and technology transition.

Jemma is a 5th year student majoring in Finance and Chinese Studies at the University of Sydney, with an interest in how nurturing international ties can capitalise on the advantages of Australia’s multicultural society. Her connection to China is rooted in her heritage and lifelong appreciation of Chinese language and culture, strengthened during a transformative year abroad at Peking University in Beijing sponsored by the Westpac Asian Exchange Scholarship.

In 2026, she will be working towards an Honours thesis in Chinese Studies centred around exploring Chinese internet language and its impact in social identity formation, working to bridge Australia’s prominent gap in Asia-capability across numerous sectors.

She is excited to contribute to YAIA as a fellow integrating her interests in finance, second language acquisition, economic policy, history and culture into insightful pieces commenting on international interactions with China.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Young Australians in International Affairs. All content is original, and no plagiarism has been used in the preparation of this article.