Chinese 'Big Enterprises', Doing Global Business

The "2025 Top 100 Chinese Multinational Companies and Transnational Index" was recently released——

Chinese 'Big Enterprises', Doing Global Business

What are Chinese multinational corporations like? What is the development trend? Recently, the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Entrepreneur Association released the "2025 Top 100 Chinese Multinational Companies and Cross border Index". Data shows that since the 14th Five Year Plan, the overseas assets and revenue of the top 100 Chinese multinational corporations have maintained a growth trend, and Chinese enterprises have continuously improved their global resource allocation efficiency and market development capabilities.

Chinese multinational corporations are shifting their global business from quantitative accumulation to qualitative leap.

Expansion of volume to structural optimization

How to read the list of "Top 100 Chinese Multinational Companies" (hereinafter referred to as "Top 100")?

First, let's take a look at the ranking criteria. The research team of the China Enterprise Confederation introduced that the "Top 100 Chinese Multinational Companies and Transnational Index" is generated based on the voluntary declaration data of the top 500 Chinese enterprises, top 500 Chinese manufacturing enterprises, and top 500 Chinese service enterprises, and in accordance with the standards of the United Nations Organization for Trade and Development. The top 100 Chinese multinational corporations are non-financial enterprises with overseas assets, overseas operating income, and overseas employees, ranked according to the total amount of their overseas assets.

In terms of total quantity, Chinese multinational corporations that make it into the "Top 100" have a clear entry threshold - their overseas assets should reach 22.173 billion yuan. This figure increased by 2.333 billion yuan or 11.76% compared to the previous year. In addition, the average cross-border index of the top 100 Chinese multinational corporations in 2025 is 15.56%, an increase of 0.21 percentage points from the previous year; Overseas operating revenue was 906.87 billion yuan, an increase of 5.20% over the previous year; The total amount of overseas assets reached 1.19594 trillion yuan, and the total number of overseas employees was 1174708.

Looking closely at this list, among the "Top 100" Chinese companies, the leading effect of "giants" is significant. According to the ranking of overseas assets held by enterprises, China National Petroleum Corporation ranks first with overseas assets exceeding one trillion yuan; Tencent Holdings Limited ranks second, holding over 780 billion yuan in overseas assets; Huawei Investment Holdings Limited ranks third, holding overseas assets exceeding 690 billion yuan.

How strong are these companies compared to other multinational corporations around the world? The "2025 World Investment Report" published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development has released the "2025 Top 100 Multinational Companies and Multinational Index". Among them, China National Petroleum Corporation ranks 14th, higher than multinational companies such as Chevron and Mercedes Benz Group; Tencent ranks 30th, higher than multinational corporations such as Rio Tinto and Roche; Huawei ranks 38th, higher than multinational companies such as Amazon, Ford Motor, and Apple.

In addition to PetroChina, Tencent, and Huawei, the top ten Chinese multinational companies on the "Top 100" list include China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, China Ocean Shipping Group Co., Ltd., China National Offshore Oil Corporation, State Grid Corporation of China, China Communications Construction Corporation, Lenovo Holdings Limited, and Guangzhou Yuexiu Group Co., Ltd., all of which hold overseas assets exceeding 300 billion yuan.

In terms of industries, there are 10 non-ferrous smelting and products, 7 ferrous metallurgy, 6 automobile and spare parts manufacturing, 5 wind energy and solar energy equipment manufacturing, 5 civil engineering construction, and 5 electric power production, 4 communication equipment manufacturing, Internet services, and diversified investment, and 3 household appliances manufacturing and telecommunications services in the 2025 Top 100 list of Chinese multinational companies. In addition, the "Top 100" also includes enterprises in industries such as housing construction, logistics and supply chain, and residential real estate.

From the location of corporate headquarters, the top 100 headquarters of Chinese multinational corporations in 2025 cover 17 provinces (regions, cities), with Beijing accounting for 32%, Zhejiang accounting for 13%, Guangdong accounting for 12%, Shandong accounting for 10%, Shanghai accounting for 9%, Jiangsu, Fujian, and Anhui each accounting for 4%, Hebei, Hunan, and Yunnan each accounting for 2%, and Henan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Xinjiang, Gansu, and Ningxia each accounting for 1%.

From 'going out' to 'going in'

Behind the evolution of the scale and pattern of the "Top 100" is the profound transformation of Chinese multinational enterprises from "going out" to "going in".

On the one hand, Chinese multinational corporations use technology exports to enhance their overseas reputation as "Made in China".

In September of this year, the 2025 Munich International Auto Show officially opened. During the Munich Auto Show, Xiaopeng Motors officially announced the opening of Europe's first R&D center - the Munich R&D Center, aiming to deeply explore local user needs, accelerate technological innovation and localization landing. As one of the Chinese multinational companies on the "Top 100" list, Xiaopeng Motors not only establishes sales networks in multiple regions such as Europe, Asia, and the Middle East and Africa, but also continuously enhances its global brand influence through localized production and research and development investment.

In recent years, Chinese companies have increased their investment overseas, bringing new economic growth points to the local area and accelerating the development of emerging industries such as high-end equipment and green low-carbon industries. "Li Ziwen, an associate researcher at the China Institute of Macroeconomics, analyzed that for example, some Chinese electric vehicle companies have invested in the development of the automotive industry in Hungary, helping the local area build factories and advanced production lines, promoting the electrification and intelligent transformation of the Hungarian automotive industry, and becoming the world's second largest producer of electric vehicles. Chinese multinational corporations also use "investment going global" to drive "technology going global", bringing significant technology spillover effects to overseas countries and enterprises. Especially in industries such as automobiles, steel, and engineering construction, Chinese multinational corporations continue to export advanced technologies, processes, and standards through overseas joint ventures, technology authorizations, and other means, driving local countries to continuously enhance their industrial competitiveness and innovation capabilities.

On the other hand, Chinese multinational corporations are going global, shifting from a "replication model" to "creating an ecosystem" and injecting new vitality into overseas markets.

At the beginning of 2018, Didi acquired Brazilian local shared mobility company '99' and officially launched its internationalization strategy. Currently, Didi's international business has covered 14 countries in Latin America, Asia Pacific, and Africa, providing diversified services for local users that focus on travel, including food delivery and finance. Beijing Didi Unlimited Technology Development Co., Ltd. is also one of the "Top 100" Chinese multinational enterprises. The relevant person in charge of the company introduced that in the Latin American market, Didi not only replicated and launched existing services such as electronic wallets and dynamic geofencing, but also promoted ride hailing services in the local market, setting off a trend of "using Didi to ride motorcycles" in Latin American cities with traffic congestion, facilitating local residents' travel.

The research group of China Enterprise Confederation said that Internet and communication enterprises represented by Tencent and China Telecom not only copied domestic business models overseas, but also exported business models, technical standards, ecosystems and other practices that have been tested. Chinese enterprises are gradually becoming participants and makers of international digital ecological rules.

The global business of Chinese multinational corporations is still shifting from resource acquisition to win-win cooperation, promoting the positive development of the local economy and society. "For example, infrastructure enterprises represented by CCCC have implemented a series of major infrastructure projects in the 'the Belt and Road' co construction countries, which has not only driven China's technology, standards and equipment 'going global', but also promoted the improvement of the local industrial chain and increased the employment rate," said the research group of the China Enterprise Confederation.

Continue to improve the international operation level of enterprises

Chinese multinational corporations actively fulfill their social responsibilities in their host countries, contribute to local infrastructure construction, taxation, and establish a responsible corporate brand image. Data shows that in 2024, Chinese overseas enterprises achieved sales revenue of 3.6 trillion US dollars, paid taxes of 82.1 billion US dollars to the investment location, and had a total of 5.021 million employees at the end of the year, of which 65.8% were foreign employees.

Currently, the internationalization of Chinese enterprises has become an important component of the global economy, but objectively speaking, there are still gaps and challenges for Chinese enterprises in the process of internationalization. According to the research group of the China Enterprise Confederation, the figure of "15.56% of the top 100 multinational companies in China in 2025" is still lower than the multinational index of 52.52% for the top 100 multinational companies in the world in 2025 and 30.75% for the top 100 multinational companies in developing economies in 2024, although it has increased compared to the previous year. In addition, the proportion of overseas assets, overseas operating income, and overseas employees of the top 100 Chinese multinational corporations also urgently needs to be increased, and overseas business performance still needs to be improved.

From the perspective of the international market, the current geopolitical tension is intensifying, economic competition and cooperation are intertwined, and cross-border operations of enterprises face certain risks. From the perspective of enterprises themselves, they are also facing challenges such as digital transformation and green development, "said the research group of the China Enterprise Confederation. To further enhance the cross-border operational capabilities of Chinese multinational enterprises, it is necessary to establish core competitive advantages in areas such as supply chain resilience, sustainable development, and localized operations. We should pay special attention to the combination of internationalization strategy and localization operation, and pay more attention to cross-border business innovation, strengthening compliance management, fulfilling social responsibility, and continuously improving the level of cross-border operation and management.

For example, in terms of supply chain, Chinese companies need to reflect on their previous efficiency first layout strategy when dealing with geopolitical risks, focusing on ensuring the safety and resilience of the supply chain and achieving sustainable development. For markets that implement protective measures such as high tariffs, if their purchasing power is strong and their products or services sell well in the local market in the early stage, they can consider localized investment, "said the research group of the China Enterprise Confederation. Chinese multinational corporations also need to promote organizational restructuring to adapt to international operations, work together with upstream and downstream partners to go global, attach importance to global brand building, and further enhance the recognition of Chinese brands in the global market.

To better support Chinese multinational enterprises' 'going out' and 'going in', we need to support more small and medium-sized enterprises to focus on technological innovation, product innovation, and management innovation, effectively improve their 'internal strength', enhance their core technological capabilities and product competitiveness, accelerate the construction of enterprise management systems and risk management mechanisms that meet the needs of international operations, and enhance their overseas compliance management capabilities. At the same time, we need to actively collaborate with more countries to promote bilateral investment facilitation, further deepen the reform of the foreign investment management system, and improve the foreign investment management service system. (Reporter Liao Ruiling)

Information source: People's Daily Overseas Edition