Abstract: Based on panel data of manufacturing trade between China and 78 countries (regions) from 2002 to 2017, this paper empirically examines the impact of import competition on the high-quality development of Chinese manufacturing from the Amount and Quality levels, and introduces innovation as an mediation variable in order to study the transmission path of import competition to the high-quality development of Chinese manufacturing. The research found that: import competition generally inhibited the high-quality development of Chinese manufacturing, and innovation played a mediating role in the relationship between them; import competition in developed economies promoted the high-quality development of Chinese manufacturing, but there is no mediating effect of innovation; import competition in developing economies has negative impact on the high-quality development of Chinese manufacturing, and innovation appears as a partial mediating effect at the Amount level and complete mediating effect at the Quality level; import competition in transition economies also has negative impact on the high-quality development of Chinese manufacturing, and innovation plays a part of mediating effect at both the Amount and Quality levels.