The Rise of China’s Global Companies

THE rise of individual Chinese companies to leadership positions in global competition is already well known. Lenovo is the world’s largest PC producer. Haier is the world’s largest household goods manufacturer. Huawei is the second largest producer of telecommunications equipment. Forbes magazine ranked ICBC as the world’s overall number one company in 2013 by combined revenue， assets， profits and market capitalization.

But it is crucial to measure the positions of Chinese companies in global competition systematically. Overall China’s top 500 companies， with US $8 trillion operating income， have approximately two thirds the revenue and assets of the top 500 U.S. companies. Chinese companies are expanding significantly faster than their U.S. peers – the latter have primarily strengthened their position in the U.S. market via cost cutting without significant growth. But despite striking progress， China still has to catch up with the largest international competitors in a number of sectors.

Attempts to analyze the true comparative position of Chinese companies in global competition are sometimes made via bilateral comparison of the top 500 companies in the U.S. and China. However， while such comparisons are interesting they can also be misleading， as a signifi cant decline of the global position of U.S. companies has taken place over the last decade– as may be seen in Table 1. Therefore， bilateral comparisons with the U.S. do not establish the overall position of Chinese companies in global competition.

More general international assessments of the position of China’s companies are sometimes made by analyzing the Fortune Global 500. The disadvantage of this is that while 500 companies may be a suffi cient sample for an individual country， it is rather small for the total global economy. A larger sample of international companies exists in the world’s 2，000 largest publicly listed companies， namely the “Forbes 2000.” As the combined revenue of the 2，000 companies is equivalent to 50 percent of world GDP， they provide a more accurate view of global competition.

Analyzing fi rst the overall position of Chinese companies， the dramatic rise is clear. In 2007， on the eve of the international financial crisis， China had only 56 companies among the world’s 2，000 largest listed fi rms. By 2013 this had risen to 149.

In revenue terms the change was even more dramatic. In 2004 China’s companies accounted for only 0.8 percent of the revenue of the Forbes 2000. By 2007 this fi gure had only risen to 1.9 percent – China’s position was marginal. However by 2013 China’s companies accounted for 8.5 percent of the revenue of the 2，000 companies – a position exceeded only by Japan and the U.S. This data is shown in Table 1.

Between 2007 and 2013 China overtook all individual European countries. In profits the shift was even greater. By 2013 China accounted for 12.9 percent of the profi ts of the world’s 2，000 largest quoted companies， compared to 3.2 percent in 2007. The international position of China’s companies has strengthened significantly since the international financial crisis began in 2008.

A more detailed analysis of sectors of global competition reveals a pattern of strengths and weaknesses of Chinese companies differing signifi cantly from “conventional wisdom.” China is frequently conceived as fundamentally a manufacturing economy. Manufacturing production in China is indeed now over 20 percent higher than that of the U.S. But China is a manufacturing base not only for its own companies but for foreign multinationals. It is necessary to distinguish between China as a base for manufacturing and the position of China’s own manufacturing companies.

China’s manufacturing firms have made significant progress in global competition， as is shown in Table 2. Their share of the revenue of Forbes 2000 manufacturing companies rose from 0.5 percent in 2007 to 4.2 percent in 2013. But this position remains weaker not only than the U.S. （31.7 percent） and Japan （17.8 percent）， but also Germany （8.8 percent） and France （5.0 percent）. Only in two manufacturing sectors， capital goods （12.7 percent） and consumer durables （5.2 percent）， do Chinese companies hold a global market share of above five percent .

Table 2 shows the actual international strengths and weaknesses of Chinese companies. It should be noted that this Table’s classification differs from some frequently used as it divides service industries into two sectors – financial and non-financial. The reason this is necessary becomes clear when the different position held by China in these different sectors of service companies is analyzed.

China’s position in financial services is strong. Its 12.7 percent revenue share is second only to the U.S. In the more strictly defined sphere of banking， China’s 17.7 percent share is the world’s largest， exceeding the U.S. The profitability of China’s financial services is also world number one. In contrast， in non-financial services （retailing， travel， media， hotel and etc） China’s share， only 4.0 percent， is weaker even than its position in manufacturing – the stark contrast with the 43.7 percent share held by U.S. companies is evident. A clear distinction must therefore be drawn between China’s position in global financial services （strong） and its position in non-financial services （very weak）.

The other strong positions held by China among global companies are in the relatively small sector of construction， where its companies hold the world’s number one position， and in primary products （oil， mining， basic metals， electricity， gas and water supply） ， where it is second in the world after the U.S. In conglomerates China’s position is weak， but as this is a small sector it is not a serious problem.

These trends make clear that among large companies， which dominate every economy’s development， China is not following the standard textbook progression from primary industry to secondary industry to tertiary industry. It is following a path of development from primary industry to financial services， and then to manufacturing and non-financial services. This pattern can also be found in the large developing economies of Brazil and India – calling into question the general applicability of the “textbook scenario.”

There is a clear internal logic to this pattern of development. It corresponds to China’s overall macroeconomic position. China has already overtaken the U.S. in financial resources available for investment. China’s total savings in 2011， the latest year for which internationally comparative data is available， were US $3.6 trillion， compared to US $1.8 trillion in the U.S. As savings are the “raw material” of the financial sector， this explains why China’s position in global financial services is strong.

This is the dynamic source of development of Chinese companies in global competition. The dominance established by China in funds available for investment has already established its financial companies as among the world’s strongest. This macroeconomic financial strength is also gradually spilling into other sectors through its role in developing technology （through RD and MA） and managerial skills （as China’s companies increase in scale and globalize）. It is therefore logical that China， in line with other large developing economies， should establish a strong position in financial services before this spreads into other sectors， such as manufacturing and non-financial services， where it is still comparatively weak compared to foreign competitors.

In short， the rise of China’s companies in global competition is striking. But to understand this dynamic it is necessary， first， to understand that financial services is currently a stronger sector for China in global competition than manufacturing； and second to cease treating the“service” sector as a whole and instead grasp the different dynamics of international competition operating in the financial and non-financial service sectors of China’s economy.