New Delhi, May 25 -- China's President Xi Jinping has stepped up calls for greater self-reliance in the country's manufacturing sector, reinforcing a strategy that has long unsettled its global trade partners. His latest remarks came less than a week after Beijing and Washington agreed to a 90-day pause in their bilateral trade conflict. The message is unmistakably forward-looking: economic resilience, in Beijing's calculus, will come not from the Chinese economy's openness, but from fortified sovereignty.

not to mimic China's model, but to recognize the scale and seriousness with which Beijing is re-setting its industrial ambitions. While much attention has focused on traditional sectors, the scope of China's strategic planning stretche...