In the context of high-quality development, the key to realizing the position of manufacturing enterprises in the global value chain (GVC) is to coordinate and balance the relationship between the real economy and the virtual economy. Listed Chinese manufacturing enterprises were taken as the research object; the relationship between manufacturing enterprises’ financialization behavior and their GVC positions was examined, and an investigation was conducted into the economic impacts of enterprise financialization on GVC positions and the corresponding channels of action. The results show that corporate financialization hinders the enhancement of manufacturing enterprises’ GVC status, and is mainly inhibited through the two channels of corporate financing constraints and innovation capacity. The implementation of financing and securities policies and equity incentive systems can mitigate the negative impact of financialization on the GVC position of manufacturing firms. Finally, the effects of corporate financialization on manufacturing firms’ GVC positions are heterogeneous in terms of firm nature, industry factor intensity and regional heterogeneity.