It has sent rockets into space, produced millions
of the world's smartphones and built high-speed
trains. But until now, one bit of manufacturing
had perhaps unexpectedly eluded China: the
ballpoint pen.
A year ago Premier Li Keqiang went on national
television and bemoaned the failure of his country
to produce a good quality version of this
seemingly-simple implement.
Locally-made versions felt "rough" compared to
those from Germany, Switzerland and Japan, Mr
Li complained.
High precision
The problem was not the body of the pen, but the
tip - the tiny ball that dispenses ink as you write.
It might be something we take for granted, but
making them requires high-precision machinery
and very hard, ultra-thin steel plates.
Put simply, China's steel has not been good
enough. And it has struggled to shape its pen tips
accurately.
Without that ability, China's 3,000 penmakers
have had to import this crucial component from
abroad, costing the industry a reported 120m
yuan ($17.3m; £14.3m) a year.
But according to People's Daily, the state-owned
Taiyuan Iron and Steel Co thinks it has cracked
the problem, after five years of research.
The first batch of 2.3-millimetre ballpoint pen tips
has recently rolled off its production lines, the
paper says.
And once lab tests are completed, it's expected
China could phase out pen tip imports completely
within two years.
Symbolic
On one level, whether China can make a great pen
is not hugely important in the scheme of things.
High-tech and innovative manufacturing lie at the
heart of the central government's Made in China
2025 programme - designed to help domestic
growth.
Relatively low-value items, like ballpoint pens,
have not been a priority.
But the pen-conundrum is a symbolic one.
Despite producing more than half of the world's
crude iron and steel, China has still heavily relied
on imports for high-grade steel.
It was a failing that Mr Li said highlighted the
need to upgrade China's manufacturing
capabilities.
Different culture
"Historically, China has never been able to do
precision engineering very well and the ballpoint
pen is an example of that," says Professor George
Huang, head of the University of Hong Kong's
department of industrial and mechanical
engineering.
"Its parts are so small and very precise, and it's
not easy to solve this problem"
Precision engineering is thriving only in certain
sectors such as aerospace and defence where the
government has placed a high priority, says Prof
Huang.
Even when it comes to smartphones and
computers, the high end computer chips are
usually imported from Japan and Taiwan.
Prof Huang says that China lacks a culture of
excellence in precision engineering.
He uses the Mandarin term "fucao" or "floating
grass", a euphemism for something that is not
100% solid or reliable.
"The culture is different from the Japanese and
Germans," he says, who are known for innovation
in engineering.
"We Chinese are supposed to be craftsmen, but
somehow the spirit is not as good."
Additional reporting by the BBC's Tessa Wong.
