In order to investigate the relationship between the service industry opening and technological complexity of Chinese manufacturing export, this paper constructs a new method to measure the overall opening level of provincial service industry in China from the policy perspective of foreign equity. The results show that: firstly, service industry opening helps to improve technological complexity of Chinese manufacturing export. Secondly, the impact of the service industry opening on technological complexity of Chinese manufacturing export is characterized by subtle heterogeneity. The positive effect is more significant in capital-intensive industries and enterprises in the eastern regions. Thirdly, service industry opening promotes the increase in technological complexity of manufacturing export by improving the level of innovation and capital stock.Therefore, further opening of the service industry from the source of policy is of great significance for Chinese manufacturing industry to achieve high-quality development and get rid of the predicament of “low-end lock-in”in the global value chain