Over the past years，Germany has on the one hand been a leader in traditional industries while on the other hand it faced a “competence trap”：strong existing industries attracted many resources，while newly established industries did not grow sufficiently. The federal government launched the strategy “Industry 4.0” in order to promote the development of emerging sectors and mitigate negative effects of path dependence. This paper analyzes the progress of “Industry 4.0” over the past two years and attendant new measures taken by the federal government. Meanwhile，“Industry 4.0” creates challenges for cyber security and society at large. With the implementation of the Made in China 2025”，renewed progress has been made in Sino-German cooperation on innovation. This paper compares bilateral cooperation in this area.