Textile industry
The textile industry in China is the largest in the world in both overall production and exports. China exported $274 billion in textiles in 2013, a volume that was nearly seven times that of India, the second largest exporter with $40 billion in exports. This accounted for 43.1% of global clothing exports.
The industry began to grow at the turn of the 20th century, until the production of cotton yarn made up about 20% of China's total modern industrial output in that century. Stimulated by WWI, the industry expanded rapidly until the depression in the thirties. The industry continued to grow though more slowly until Second Sino-Japanese War, when the war destroyed many mills and their supply chains. They did not fully recover until the 1950s, at which point many of the major tycoons had moved their empires to Hong Kong to avoid persecution, while the rest of the industry was monopolized by the government. After Deng Xiaoping ascended to power, he identified these Hong Kong companies as models of technologically advanced capitalist companies and they were able to reconnect with those that had stayed in mainland China.