Limites e desafios ao desenvolvimento da indústria de semicondutores na China (2015 - 2025): uma interpretação à luz do pensamento de Celso Furtado

Abstract

This study examines the structural factors that have limited the advancement of China’s semiconductor industry in recent decades, using the theoretical categories formulated by Celso Furtado as its analytical framework. Adopting a historical-structural approach and a qualitative methodology, it seeks to understand why, despite ambitious industrial policies, the country has not achieved the projected technological self-sufficiency. Despite the initiatives implemented under the Made in China 2025 plan and substantial state investments, China remains dependent on critical technologies controlled by core countries such as the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. It is argued that this limitation stems from a set of interdependent factors, notably the country’s late entry into the sector, its subordinate integration into the semiconductor technology chain, the concentration of strategic knowledge in a small number of countries, geopolitical sanctions, and structural barriers inherent to the industry. By reinterpreting Furtado’s theory in a globalized context, the study offers a critical perspective on the obstacles to autonomous development in highly complex sectors such as semiconductors, contributing to the contemporary debate on technological dependence in the 21st century.