Rapid development of the textile and apparel export following China’s entry into the WTO
　　On December 11th， 2001， China officially joined the World Trade Organization （WTO）， which was a milestone to the development of China’s textile industry. From 1948 when the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was signed to the formal establishment of the WTO on January 1，1995， international trade of textile and apparels remained an important issue. China’s entry into the WTO has greatly benefited China’s textile and apparel export which was previously subject to quota limitation. From 2002 to 2004 or the last three years of “periodical elimination of quota limitation，” China got an opportunity to fully release its export energy with its total textile and apparel export increasing by 83% to reach 97.4 billion USD. In 2005 after the full elimination of quota limitation （though there was a transitional period for the United States and EU）， China achieved a new round of rapid development. In 2007， its total export reached 175.6 billion USD， increasing by 80% compared with that in 2004 and 2.3 folds compared with 53.3 billion USD in 2001 or an average annual growth of 22%. In 2008， China’s textile and apparel export contributed around 30% to the global total trade volume of textile and apparels， which further consolidated China’s position as the largest exporter of textile and apparels.
　　The deepening of economic globalization and China’s entry into the WTO have created a large room for internationalization of China’s textile industry. On the one hand， the long-term restrictions imposed by discriminatory trade policies of major world markets on China have been eliminated， making possible a full display of comparative advantages of China’s textile industry. On the other hand， further promotion of free trade has stimulated expansion of China’s opening-up to the outside world， enabling China to forge reciprocal economic relations with the rest of the world， accelerate the internationalization of China’s textile industry， and create a favorable development condition for a full play of China’s late-mover advantages in the international labor distribution.
　　During the period， China has encountered a series of trade frictions. Developed countries and regions， including the United States and EU， have exerted limitations on China’s textile and apparel export via different methods. The ongoing trade disputes between China and other foreign countries have， to some extent， impaired the production and export order of China’s textile and apparel enterprises. Thanks to joint efforts of the Chinese government， textile industrial organizations and textile enterprises， active dialogues and exchange have been organized in response to some arbitrary behaviors. On the other hand， efforts have been made to improve the labor status of enterprises， strengthen environmental protection， and effectively undertake the social responsibilities. Results show that China’s textile and apparel export has maintained years of rapid development without major fluctuations and that its international competitiveness has been significantly improved. 　　Expansion of the textile industrial clusters
　　Since China’s adoption of the reform and opening-up policy， the textile industrial clusters with the regional economy at the county and town level as well as the private economy at the core have made great strides. Particularly with the advent of the new century， a large batch of characteristic industrial clusters has taken shape and sought further expansion. Driven by market allocation of resources， industries have achieved a high degree of industrial concentration with more and more new enterprises emerging. The economies of scale is taking effect. As the industrial chain becomes more and more complete， there has been closer interactions with professional markets to lay a solid foundation for development of the national textile economy. So far， the textile clusters have gradually constituted the foundation for China’s textile industry and risen to become major production spots of textile and apparels， contributing around 80% to the total economic aggregate of the textile industry. Additionally， these textile clusters have been outstanding representatives of the textile industry.
　　China’s textile and apparel industrial clusters have been outcomes of China’s adoption of the reform and opening-up policy. Relying on the regional geographic advantages， local interpersonal relationship and local culture， these textile clusters have been equipped with striking local characteristics and widely believed to be an outcome of market-oriented economy. So far， a relatively complete industrial chain and supporting system have been put in place. With the deepening of specialization， the characteristic of upstream industries driven by downstream industries has been increasingly prominent.
　　Active response to the international financial crisis
　　In August 2018， the American subprime mortgage crisis led to onset of the international financial crisis， which dealt a heavy blow to the world economy. With the sprawl of the international financial crisis， the weakening of external demand， aggravation of internal competition， growing dif- ficulty of enterprise operation， increase of losses， and severity of employment prospects — all these have seriously affected the development of China’s textile industry. Since August 2008， China’s textile and apparel output has dropped after a sustainable growth， and the annual export output has reached 8.2%， registering a year-on-year decrease of 10.8%. The transaction volume in the Summer Canton Fair fell by more than 30%. Affected by a weak external demand， a considerable number of textile exports transferred exports to imports， which deepened the burden on the domestic market. 　　On April 24th， 2009， the State Council announced the Plan for the Textile Industry Adjustment and Revitalization （Adjustment and Revitalization Plan for short） for the year 2009 to 2011， causing a strong sensation in the textile industry. The Plan fully recognizes that “the textile industry is China’s traditional pillar industry and also an important industry for people’s livelihood， playing a critical role in boosting market prosperity， expanding the export， creating job opportunities， increasing farmers’ income， and promoting urbanization.” All this has greatly encouraged the textile industry to overcome difficulties brought by the international financial crisis and boosted the confidence in realizing the medium-and long-term sustainable development.
　　Industrial textiles becoming a new growth point
　　For a long time， terminal products of the textile industry have been apparels and other clothing products. In the early 1980s， apparels， textiles for decoration and textiles for the industrial use were defined as three pillar products. After around two decades of adjustment， the ratio of the fiber consumption of these three products changed from 84：11：5 to 68：19：13. Among them， textile products for the industrial use embraced a robust development.
　　With the advent of the new century， the consistent and steady development of China’s national economy has driven a strong demand of different departments of the national economy for textile products for the industrial use. The development background is conducive to development of China’s industry of textile products for the industrial use. Especially after the breakout of the international financial crisis， the Chinese government has adopted a series of policies and measures revolving around expansion of domestic need to fuel a growing investment in China’s infrastructure construction， and this has created a favorable condition for a full release of the textile product market. Moreover， China’s industrialization and urbanization have been speeding up， which has driven investment in fixed assets. With the tightening of low carbon and environmental protection requirements， investment in technological transformation and upgrade will increase without doubt. At the same time， the domestic demand for civil engineering synthetic materials， filtering materials and other industrial textile products will maintain a steady growth. With the improvement of urbanrural residents’ living standards， the demand for textile products for the medical use， hygiene use， auto decoration and other industrial uses will be strengthened by a large margin. As the independent innovation capability and the processing and manufacturing capability of China’s industry of textile products for the industrial use further strengthen， textile products for special industrial uses， such as the high-end products for aerospace use as well as high-performance products for safety and protection， will also gain wider applications in relevant sectors of the national economy. 　　In 2010， the number of enterprises above the designated scale in the industry of textile products for the industrial use totaled at around 2，500， increasing by 1.5 folds compared with that in 2000. In 2000， there were fewer than ten enterprises with an operating income of more than 100 million yuan. In 2010， however， the number exceeded 100， of which 20 earned a revenue of more than 500 million yuan and 10 earned more than 1 billion yuan. In addition， the number of backbone enterprises achieving the designated development scale increased significantly. The development trend of industrial clusters became more and more obvious. The textile product output and production capacity of six provinces， including Zhejiang， Guangdong， Jiangsu， Shandong， Fujian and Shanghai took up around 80% of the national output， leading to the formation of outstanding industrial clusters with outstanding dominant industries， including Zhejiang Haining Warping Synthetic Materials， Jiangsu Funing Filtering Materials， Shandong Lingxian Civil Engineering Synthetic Materials， and Hubei Xiantao Materials for Medical and Hygiene Use.
　　In 2010， the output of China’s industrial textile products reached 8.22 million tons， and the output annual growth rate from 2000 to 2010 reached 16.8%. In 2009， subsidiary sectors of the textile industry， affected by the international financial crisis， significantly declined. In spite of that， the textile products for the industrial use still maintained a sound development momentum with its growth rate staying at around 16%. The total output of China’s textile products for the industrial use took up more than 30% of the global total and accounted for more than 20% of China’s total fiber processing quantity. This suggested that China’s industry of textile products for the industrial use made great strides. According to the objective pinned down in the 13th Five-Year Program for Development of the Textile Industry， the percentage of textile products for the industrial use will have contributed around 33% to China’s total fiber processing quantity by the end of the “13th Five-Year Program” and caught up with the development level of developed countries.
　　Issuance of the Outline for Building a Textile Power （2011 - 2020）
　　In May 2012， China National Textile and Apparel Council announced the Outline for Building a Textile Power （2011 - 2020） （hereinafter abbreviated as the Outline）， the first ten-year planning outline for the medium-and long-term development. The Outline clarifies the magnificent objective of building China into a textile superpower in 2020. To the end， China’s textile industry should conform to new expectations and new requirements， and mold new advantages to accomplish four core tasks， including scientific and technological progress， brand construction， sustainable development and talent team construction. 　　New development under the background of new normal
　　Since 2013， China’s macroeconomic development has been ushered into the new normal， marked by an obvious slowdown of economic growth and economic structural optimization as the most important support for economic development. The textile industry， a traditional pillar industry of China’s national economy， has moved into a critical period of accelerated transformation and upgrade. Despite that the economic growth has been adjusted from a medium- and high-gear to a low-gear， the industrial adaptability to the new normal has been strengthened， capable of maintaining a steady development moment against the backdrop of a growing burden of economic downturn and transforming from the high-speed growth mode to a high-quality development mode.
　　From 2013 to 2016， the main operating income and profit of enterprises beyond the designated scale reached an annual average growth rate of 6.3% and 4.2%， respectively， whose growth rate was faster than that of the national industrial average by 0.6% and 0.4%， respectively. In 2017， the export volume of textile and apparels reached 267.39 billion USD， accounting for 36.8% of the global total. The net foreign exchanges created by the whole industry reached 241.9 billion USD， contributing to 57.3% to the national total.
　　Outstanding achievements of technological innovation
　　Since the arrival of the new century， particularly since 2010， the technological innovation capability of China’s textile industry has experienced a continuous improvement， having achieved a series of outstanding achievements. In October 2010， China National Textile and Apparel Council promulgated the Outline for Technological Progress of the Textile Industry， the first of its kind in the new century， which is targeted at industry-wide development and focuses on developing 28 critical technologies and 10 advanced and complete sets of technological equipment. In October 2010， China National Textile and Apparel Council brought forth the second document of the kind entitled the Outline for Technological Progress， which further organizes 50 breakthroughs to be overcome and 110 key promotional products. In order to carry out the five development concepts — “innovation， coordination， green， development and sharing” — put forth by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in the “13th Five-Year Program，” China National Textile and Apparel Council issued the third Outline for Technological Progress， which brings forth 30 critical technological breakthroughs to make and 100 advanced and feasible technologies for promotion in the “13th Five-Year Program.” The above three outlines for technological progress keep on deepening and are closely linked with each other. Their promulgation has provided an important reference for the nation-wide implementation of the five-year planning for the textile industry. 　　Under the guidance of the above planning， China’s textile industry has vigorously promoted commercialization of its technological innovations， increased the technological investment， and focused on making key technological breakthroughs and promotion of advanced and feasible technologies. Thanks to the effective guidance， fruitful innovations have been achieved in the field of textile fibers， spinning， dyeing & finishing， industrial textile products， spinning equipment and informationalization. All this has realized breakthroughs of the industry-wide key technologies as well as an overall improvement of the industry’s independent innovation capability， technological equipment level and product development capability.
　　Consensus on striving for sustainable development of the industry
　　In the implementation process of the Outline， the textile industry has built a low-carbon and green development model advocating cyclic economy. The utilization efficiency of resources and energies has been obvi-ously improved， ensuring a lower discharge of pollutants. Fiber recycling and cyclic use of textile products have achieved sustainable development. All in all， the whole industry has reached a consensus on sustainable development， with the low-level processing capacity characterized by inefficiency， high energy consumption and high pollution effectively restricted and eliminated.
　　During the “10th Five-Year Program，” the clean production technology was put forward as a focus of upgrading the dying and printing industry. In the “11th Five-Year Program”， new energy-saving equipment and technologies found wide applications in the textile industry. In the “12th Five-Year Program”， “strengthening of energy conservation， emission reduction and cyclic resource utilization” was officially pinpointed as a fiveyear development task of the textile industry. A large batch of key technologies for clean production， including low-temperature quick preprocessing， biological enzyme desizing， cold pad-batch dyeing， and large-volume membrane processing of stamping and dyeing waste water， has achieved breakthroughs and realized industrialized applications. From 2006 to 2015， the comprehensive energy consumption of the textile industry saw a decrease of 44%. The stamping and dyeing and printing industries units’water consumption dropped from four tons per hundred meter to 1.8 tons per hundred meter. The water recycling rate rose from 7% to 30%.
　　Realization of the internationalized development via“going global” 　　Since the 21st century， the textile industry has actively implemented the “going global” strategy， having achieved satisfactory outcomes. Changes of the global economic development pattern have brought rare opportunities for cross-border resource allocation via “going global.” In particular， China’s Belt and Road Initiative has provided a vigorous policy and institutional support for textile enterprises’ implementation of “going global”.
　　Before 2005， there were a few Chinese textile enterprises which invested abroad for more than 1 million USD. In recent years， projects invested by more than 1 million USD or even 10 million USD have been ubiquitous. For example， Zhejiang Tianlong Digital Dyeing and Printing Co.， Ltd. invested around 80 million USD in Vietnam in 2008 with Tianlong （Vietnam） Co.， Ltd. founded. In 2009， Shandong Xinguang Group invested 45.45 million USD in South Africa to establish the Textile Industrial Park. In 2011， Zhejiang Fulida Holdings Co.， Ltd. purchased the Canada Neucel Specialty Cellulose Ltd. According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China， the foreign direct investments of China’s textile enterprises in 2012 totaled at 260 million USD， increasing by one fold compared with that in 2010.
　　In recent years， due to an increasing shortage of domestic cotton resource supply， the domestic cotton price has been higher than that of the international market for a long time. That the Chinese textile enterprises build raw material production bases and raw material purchasing channels has become another form of foreign investments. For example， many Chinese textile enterprises have set up cotton purchasing channels in the cotton production origins in Asian countries， such as Pakistan and India. In Australia， there are Chinese raw material bases. In developed countries， such as the United States， Chinese enterprises have developed their cotton processing relying on the local cotton raw material bases. In 2013， the leading Chinese cotton enterprise， Zhejiang Keer Group Co.， Ltd.， invested around 218 million USD to set up the first overseas plant in Lancaster， South Carolina， United States， which was the first manufacturing plant of a Chinese textile enterprise based in the United States.
　　Under the new normal， some competitive enterprises have realized the importance of internationalization and started laying out the global industrial chain to cope with problems， including rising costs， trade barriers and raw material markets. Esquel Group has put in place a complete blouse production chain by setting up plants in Singapore， Chinese Taiwan， Philippines， etc. Ever-Glory International Group has set up the sales center and design center in the United States， Germany， Britain and so on by expanding its branches to Cambodia and Vietnam， and sales and design centers in the United States， Germany， Britain， etc. Hengyi Petrochemical Co.， Ltd. has invested in building petrochemical projects in Brunei. The project investment of phase I is estimated to be around 4.292 billion USD. Yueda Textile would take a 20% stake in the Taiwanbased company， Tex-Ray Industrial Co.， Ltd.， to share the production capacity of around 40 million apparels a year of Tex-Ray’s dozens of plants worldwide. By working with Spanish enterprises and Carrefour， Yueda has successfully entered the European retail market. 　　Since the proposal of the Belt and Road Initiative by the Chinese government in the autumn of 2013， Chinese textile enterprises have apparently quickened their pace of “going global”， having created many highlights. For example， Ruyi Group purchased the Kirby Cotton Field in Australia； purchased Renown， a Japanese fashion brand； built the textile and apparel plants in Chongqing， Yinchuan and Xinjiang， and laid out its global industrial chain investment in Britain， Italy， Germany， India， and so on. Large-scale enterprises， such as Shenzhen International Group Holdings， Jifa Group， Dongdu International， and AB Group， have conducted greenfield investment in Cambodia， Vietnam and so on. Besides， considering the influence of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement following its commencement on China’s textile industry. The investment of enterprises， such as Tianhong， Bros， Huafu， Xindadong， and Yulun， in the textile industry of Vietnam has totaled at more than 2 million spindles. Similarly， Luthai Textile invested 150 million USD in building a production line with 60，000 spindles and an annual production capacity of 30 million meters of colorful fabrics. Besides， some apparel SMEs oriented towards order transfer have invested in countries like Cambodia， Mumbai and Myanmar， and sold their products， after processing， to European and North American countries.
　　Intelligent manufacturing and “Internet +”leading a new trend
　　From 2015 to 2017， the Ministry of Industry and Commerce set up the intelligent manufacturing comprehensive standardization and new model application model annually to select the intelligent manufacturing experimental enterprises. So far， dozens of textile enterprises， including Shandong Companion Group， Qingdao Red Collar， Ningbo Cixing Co.， Ltd.， Jiangsu Dasheng Group， Anhui Huamao， and so on， have been included in the list.
　　Based on years of development and promotion， intelligent manufacturing of the textile industry experimental sites has achieved remarkable progress. The fully-automatic cheese dyeing system， including automatic blending of dye auxiliaries and cheese automatic transmission， has realized online detection and real-time closed-loop control of the whole process of dyeing， and built an automatic and continuous production line. By capturing the personalized， small-batch and customized consumption trend， the networked MTM platform of Qingdao Red Collar has been applied to personalized customization of business suits for men. Supported by the powerful information system， the platform can distribute its orders to the distributed manufacturing system made up of multiple flexible processing units， thus realizing a quick response. 　　The textile equipment has widely adopted the digital control technologies and be configured with the Internet access and online monitoring system. On the basis of the single-machine automation and intelligentization， the Internet access and the full-process control and management of production activities have been made possible.
　　In July 2015， the State Council published the Guidelines on Actively Promoting the “Internet +” Action. As the integration between automation and intelligentization deepens， the Internet technologies have made positive progress. The new generation of information technologies， such as the Internet of Things， cloud computing， mobile Internet， and big data， have achieved a series of successful applications. All this has laid a solid foundation for acceleration of the “Internet +” development.
　　As an important part of the industrial Internet， the Internet of Things has found wide applications in the online monitoring of textile production activities. Cotton spinning enterprises represented by Luthai Textile， Wuxi Yimian， Jiangsu Yueda， and Nantong Dasheng have adopted the online data collection system for their spinning equipment. By doing so， they have significantly strengthened their real-time monitoring capability of the production process.
　　With the increasing maturity of the cloud computing technology， cloud service platforms have played a critical role in regions with industrial clusters and the transformation process of SMEs. The public service platforms oriented towards SMEs， after years of construction， have achieved initial success in regions with textile industrial clusters. Service platforms in Shaoxing， Huzhou， Haining， and Zhuji in Zhejiang， Dongjiang， Xiqiao and Kaiqing in Guangdong， Nantong in Jiangsu， Shishi in Fujian have fully displayed their radiating role.