External headwinds fail to stymie tech progress

But in some fields, such as passenger vehicles, petrochemicals equipment and electronic machines, China still needs to catch up with the US. It is still unable to ship large numbers of such products to the US market.

Dong Yang, executive vice-president of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, said, "If we had ... invested more in these sectors, many of our manufacturing industries would be performing better globally and would not be easily blackmailed by the US."

Even though Chinese companies have made technological breakthroughs in producing high-quality bearings for high-speed trains and container transshipment vehicles over the past two years, Dong urged domestic players to try to control more of the manufacturing value chain, like their rivals in the US and Germany.

According to a recent Reuters commentary, the more the US tries to block Chinese companies, the more likely they are to come up with their own solutions.

In January, the US barred a takeover of the money transfer agency Moneygram by China's e-commerce giant Alibaba's Ant Financial. As a result, Alibaba created a different, and in many respects more innovative, product using blockchain-based technology.

A blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked using cryptography. Blockchains that are readable by the public are widely used in cryptocurrencies.

Zeng Ming, Alibaba's head of strategic planning, was quoted as saying in an interview with Reuters: "Any new business, while growing up, always encounters obstacles. We understand that. It is part of the cost of doing business. So we might be frustrated, but because the value we create is so overwhelming, we will find some way to overcome that barrier."