In the context of the outbreak of the international financial crisis, on April 6, when the 11th China International Machine Tool Exhibition was held, many people in the industry were thinking about the following question: what is the strategic choice of China's machine tool industry?

　　There is no doubt that China's machine tool industry has made remarkable achievements. In terms of system and mechanism, the original market pattern with state-owned enterprises as the main body has been broken, and almost all state-owned machine tool enterprises have carried out joint-stock reform. A new competitive pattern of state-owned, private and foreign capital has been formed; from the perspective of product structure, the output of CNC machine tools has been greatly improved. For example, in 2000, the output of CNC machine tools in the whole industry was less than 10000 sets. Now, the annual output of a relatively large enterprise is close to or even more than this number; From the perspective of industry scale, more than 2000 enterprises of scale or above have become scattered, and the Northeast plate represented by Shenyang machine tool, Shandong plate represented by Jinan second machine tool and Shaanxi plate represented by Qinchuan machine tool have also formed a tripartite layout. It should be said that, as the master machine of equipment manufacturing industry, the achievements of China's machine tool industry are obvious and proud.

　　However, problems remain. The outbreak of the international financial crisis further highlights the existing problems of China's machine tool industry. Still in the first half of 2008, the machine tool industry has appeared "three obvious": the growth rate has dropped significantly, the market of middle and low-grade products has shrunk significantly, and the import of high-grade CNC machine tools has increased significantly. The "three obvious" can be summed up in eight words, which are called "high-end failure, low-end scuffle, or" on the one hand, the trend of economic CNC machine tools and middle and high-end CNC machine tools has obviously differentiated, the stock of ordinary machine tools has increased, and the production capacity is over; on the other hand, the orders of high-end large-scale machine tools are still full, and there is a trend of supply exceeding demand. Such a strong contrast makes many people of insight have a clear understanding of the defects in China's machine tool industry.

　　There is also a set of data that is very illustrative. One data is the main goal of the "11th Five Year Plan" machine tool industry: by the end of the "11th Five Year Plan", the domestic market share of domestic CNC machine tools has increased from 26.9% at the end of the "10th Five Year Plan" to more than 50%; the other data is the three-year revitalization goal of the machine tool industry from 2009 to 2011: the market share of domestic CNC machine tools has increased to more than 40%. Comparing this group of data, we can come to a conclusion: the target of domestic CNC machine tool market share of more than 50% in the 11th five year plan seems to be difficult to achieve now.

　　The problem is clear at a glance, and the conclusion has been reached. What is the strategic choice of China's machine tool industry? In short, it is to focus on improving the ability of independent innovation, optimizing the industrial structure, accelerating the industrial upgrading, and sticking to the high-end line. The so-called high-end routes include high-end management, high-end technology, high-end products and high-end market share. An important way to stick to the high-end line is the application of the first set of numerical control products. We should take the implementation of the national management measures for the first set of major technical equipment test and demonstration project as a breakthrough, promote the domestic high-grade CNC machine tools to enter the national key projects of aviation, aerospace, ships, weapons, electronic information, power generation equipment, engineering machinery, transportation equipment, etc., and the State supports and promotes the application of the first set of domestic high-grade CNC machine tools through demonstration projects. It is reported that China Machine Tool Industry Association has put forward good policy suggestions and specific measures in this regard.

　　As for general machine tools and economic CNC machine tools, where is the way? Of course, it is impossible to go all the way to "high end". The high imbalance of China's economic development determines that ordinary machine tools and economic CNC machine tools still have their own living space. The key to survival is to improve the ability of independent innovation. The main battlefield of independent innovation is the market, not the laboratory. Independent innovation is a way of thinking to discover the real consumption demand of the market. Enterprises should discover and meet the real consumption demand of the domestic market through independent innovation