Comment by ux266478
1 day ago
It was not linear growth. The 70s and 80s were essentially write-offs. Things began to move in the mid-1990s and it has been a continual evolution and process over the last 30 years. Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping's teams all did wildly different things for China. The vertical integration you mention was basically non-existent prior to 2020, it came about as part of the New Development Pattern (新发展格局) for the Inner Loop (国内双循环)
China today is virtually unrecognizable compared to even 10 years ago, though.
I remember when there was a big push to make ball point pen tips, and how a but less than 10 years later they succeeded in making them domestically.
Rings a bell. Sounds simple, but being able to reliably make huge numbers of tiny little metal spheres with tiny tiny tolerance is a serious feat; being able to do that brings knowledge and experience that unlocks an entire level of the tech tree.