The Impact of Digitalization on the Upgrading of China’s Manufacturing Sector’s Global Value Chains

As digitalization continues to flourish, China’s manufacturing value chains are climbing up and breaking through time and space constraints. This research aims to verify the impact of digitalization on the upgrading of China’s manufacturing value chains and the specific transmission routes, as well as to suggest appropriate countermeasures. A series of analyses are conducted using the data of 13 manufacturing industries in China from 2007 to 2019 to construct a two-way fixed-effect model and a mediation model with moderating effects. The conclusions are (1) digitalization can indeed promote the upgrading of China’s manufacturing global value chains (GVCs). (2) Digitalization plays a critical role in upgrading the technology-intensive manufacturing industries’ GVC participation. (3) Dependence on imports is the main path for digitalization to promote the upgrading of the manufacturing GVCs. By examining empirical evidence and relevant case studies, this research seeks to provide valuable insights into the ongoing transformation of China’s manufacturing industry’s GVCs through digitalization.