Measurement of sustainable development index in China's manufacturing industry based on Er-xiang Dual theory

In the era of high-quality development, the sustainable development of manufacturing industry has shown characteristics of the Er-xiang Dual. In this paper, we mainly adopt the Erxiang Dual theory to construct the theoretical framework on the sustainable development of the manufacturing industry, and deduced the indexes of the sustainable development in the manufacturing sector, including the state index, process index, coordination index and comprehensive index. Subsequently, we have used the cross-sectional data of average for 2016-2018 to carry out an empirical analysis in the manufacturing sector in 30 provinces of China, and divided these 30 provinces into four echelons according to the comprehensive index. Finally, we have put forward four kinds of development strategies, namely, "creating demonstrations", "making up for the points of weakness", "enhancing the industrial advantages" and "cultivating the development features". This study has enriched the theoretical framework of the sustainable development in the manufacturing sector in the era of high-quality development from the perspective of system theory, which will provide vital references to accurately assess the level of the sustainable development in the manufacturing industry in various regions of China and to formulate classified development strategies. (C) 2021 THE AUTHORS. Published by Elsevier BV on behalf of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University.