自19世紀中期以來，中國已取代歐盟成爲全球最大的服裝和紡織品供應國，中國的低勞動力成本無疑地觸發這種轉變，儘管轉變原因尙未明確。中國正迅速失去其勞動力成本的優勢，但其仍成功地保持著在該行業的領先地位。本文將對中國政府的雙重策略進行討論。首先，國家支持將中國紡織品生產基地遷移到中國較貧困的省份和鄰近最不發達的國家，企圖保持其在勞動密集型紡織品的競爭優勢。另一方面，中國政府推出了多項政策，推動中國紡織企業創造資本密集型紡織品、利基產品和國際品牌。通過揭示中國將自由主義與經濟民族主義相結合的務實方針來應對紡織業面臨的挑戰，本案例研究證實自由主義和重商主義政策並非相互排斥，且仍存有未被外界認知的部分。另外，儘管中國的競爭力主要體現在外包南歐國家的服裝生產面向，但中國在紡織業高端市場上的競爭力仍持續增強中。

Since the mid 2000’s China has dethroned the EU as the world’s biggest provider of apparel and textiles. China’s low labour costs have without a doubt triggered this evolutions. Less clear however are the reasons why, despite the fact that China is rapidly losing its labour cost advantage, the country successfully maintains its leading position in the industry. This article poses that the Chinese government uses a twofold strategy. First of all, the state tries to maintain its competitive advantage in labour-intensive textile products by supporting the relocation of Chinese textile production bases to poorer Chinese provinces and adjacent LDCs (least developed countries). At the same time, the Chinese government launched several policies, pushing the Chinese textile firms to create capital-intensive textile goods, niche-products and international brands. By revealing China’s pragmatic approach of combining liberalism and economic nationalism in order to cope with the challenges it faces in the textile sector, this case study exemplifies that liberal and mercantilist policy tools are not mutually exclusive; something that has been insufficiently recognized. Moreover, whereas China’s competitiveness was mainly felt in the apparel-producing southern-European countries, China is becoming increasingly competitive in the high-end parts of the sector too.