These days, we take the march of China for granted. Though its economic juggernaut has slowed, Chinese output is now bigger than that of the US by some measure. Strategically, Beijing is making waves as far afield as Africa and Latin America. Militarily, it is starting to become more assertive, particularly in its near waters. But what about corporate China? Will Chinese companies too take the world by storm? Is it only a matter of time before many of us are chatting on Chinese-made mobile phones and driving Chinese-built cars?
It certainly might look that way. After years in which state behemoths dominated China’s corporate landscape, suddenly a whole crop of private companies have broken through. Last year, Alibaba, the ecommerce giant, completed the biggest initial public offering in history, raising $25bn and establishing its market capitalisation at more than $200bn. Other technology groups such as Baidu, a search company, and Tencent, a social media and gaming company, have established dominant positions in China’s massive online marketplace. Even Xiaomi, a company that did not exist five years ago, has come from nowhere to become one of the world’s biggest smartphone manufacturers.
Surely, it is not too much of a leap to suggest that these, and other companies, could soon be making a splash internationally. After all, it is not all that long ago Japanese goods were written off as shoddy. Though the competitive challenge of companies such as Sony and Panasonic has come and gone, Japan has established world-class businesses from Toyota to SoftBank. So too has South Korea with Samsung and Hyundai. Why shouldn’t China follow suit?