Under the background that the division of labor within products has become the main international division of labor, the research on the impact of independent innovation and foreign technology spillovers on the rise of the manufacturing value chain is important for promoting China’s industry toward the middle and high end of the global value chain and fostering several world-class advanced manufacturing clusters. As far as the goal is concerned, it has a very realizing and important role. In order to explore the effects of independent innovation and foreign technology spillovers on the ascent of the manufacturing value chain, and to further clarify the role of a country’s technology absorptive capacity in this process, the article first analyzes the effects of independent innovation and foreign technology spillovers on manufacturing at the theoretical level. On this basis, with the help of the 2018 TIVA database, the global value chain status index of China’s manufacturing industry during the 11 years from 2005 to 2015 is calculated, and then the industry level is constructed. The panel data, using fixed-effects model, quantile regression, panel Tobit and other research methods, is employed to empirically test the influence and mechanism of manufacturing independent innovation and foreign technology spillovers on the rise of global value chains. The research results show that independent innovation is the main engine driving the rise of China’s manufacturing global value chain status; while technology spillovers caused by foreign patent applications and technology spillovers caused by foreign investment have hindered the rise of China’s manufacturing global value chain, and are the main factor of "low-end lock-in" in the manufacturing global value chain of China. However, technology spillovers caused by foreign patent applications and technology spillovers caused by foreign investment can both be digested and absorbed by the manufacturing industry and have a positive impact on the rise of the global value chain of China’s manufacturing industry. Technology spillovers are the key to promoting the rise of its global value chain. However, this key role shows obvious industry heterogeneity, and the estimation results of the indirect effects of foreign capital technology spillovers in some industries are not obvious. This may be because the overall technological level of China’s manufacturing industry is still far behind that of developed countries, and its ability to absorb and digest foreign technology spillovers is not strong. Furthermore, based on the research methods of indirect effect analysis, heterogeneity test and panel instrumental variable method, the article once again clarifies that there is a large technological gap between China and foreign countries, the quality of human capital in China is low, and the development focus of different technology industries is different. The influence of manufacturing independent innovation and foreign technology spillovers on the promotion of its status in the global value chain is heterogeneous. Obviously, these research conclusions have very important enlightenment significance for thinking about how to realize the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry according to its own development and cultivate several world-class advanced manufacturing clusters under the background of the division of labor in the global value chain.