New Productivity: A Comparison of European and American Policies and Lessons for China

新质生产力:欧美政策比较与中国借鉴

Abstract

New productivity—anchored in digitalisation, green transition and innovation-driven growth—has become a core theme in major economies’ structural upgrading strategies. This paper compares how the European Union and the United States conceptualise, cultivate, and govern “new productivity”, and distils policy implications for China. Drawing on policy documents, strategic plans and sectoral initiatives, the study finds that the EU emphasises mission-oriented and regulation-led new productivity, driven by green transformation, digital sovereignty, and social cohesion (e.g. Green Deal, Digital Compass, industrial policy under “open strategic autonomy”). By contrast, the US follows a more market-driven and security-oriented approach, characterised by flexible industrial policies, massive innovation funding in key technologies, and reshoring/“friend-shoring” framed by national security and techno-geopolitics. The paper argues that China should neither mechanically imitate European planning logics nor American competition logics, but build a China-specific new productivity paradigm that simultaneously: (1) strengthens basic research and original innovation capacity; (2) accelerates digital–green–manufacturing integration; (3) leverages super-large market advantages and the “new nationwide system” to build open yet controllable innovation ecosystems; and (4) improves institutional arrangements for talent, data and platform governance. These insights provide theoretical support and policy reference for China to cultivate new productive forces under great-power competition and deep global uncertainty.