Abstract: China is and will be in the aging process in a long period to come. When the comparative advantage of labor is gradually lost in a time of population aging，how is the manufacturing industry to obtain new comparative advantages and participate in international competition？ This is an urgent issue for study. The reduction of labor supply leads to the increase of labor cost，followed by the formation of an anti-driving mechanism in the labor-intensive industries，which forces export industries to undergo structural transformation and upgrading；nevertheless，the improvement of labor quality promotes the formation of human capital，followed by the formation of a human capital circulation mechanism，which can improve the technology and efficiency of exported products. The above two working mechanisms explain the positive effect of population aging on the complexity of manufactured exports. Based on the provincial level panel data of Chinese mainland from 2002 to 2019，an empirical study proves the positive impact of population aging on improving the complexity of manufactured exports. In case of the unbalanced development in different regions，the samples are classified according to the central，eastern，western，and northeastern regions of the country，but the result remains unchanged. In the test of all samples，factors including education years，economic development levels，infrastructure construction levels，and trade openness have a prominent positive impact on the complexity of manufactured exports. In contrast，in regional samples of the western and northeastern regions，factors including economic development levels and infrastructure construction levels have a negative impact. Hence，the key points of building the new comparative advantage of“made-in-China”are to create a domestic flying geese model based on regional endowment advantage，establish a multilayer and orderly connected modern vocational education system，and further release the human capital accumulation effect of the aging population.

Key words: population aging, complexity of exports, comparative advantage, manufacturing industry, labor cost, human capital, made-in-China