Based on the panel data of Chinese manufacturing industry from 2006 to 2011, the paper studies the effect of environmental regulation on manufacturing technological innovation. The results show that from the perspective of holistic manufacturing sectors, the effect of environmental regulation on manufacturing technological innovation is not significant. But from the perspective of industry, the effect of environmental regulation on manufacturing technological innovation has industrial heterogeneity. Environmental regulation is conducive to technological innovation in pollution intensive industries, but the effect of environmental regulation on technological innovation is not significant in clean production industries. Therefore, according to the actual situation of each industry, the government should make different kinds of environmental regulation policies in order to improve the technological innovation capability of Chinese manufacturing industry.