China’s corporations are rising in the global economy, matching the US.
According to this year’s list of Fortune Global 500 Companies, 119 companies made it the list, roughly on par with the US, which had 121 companies in the list; three companies made to the top ten, beating the US and Japan.
Workers inspect pipelines at a natural gas facility run by Sinopec in Dazhou, Sichuan province
The rise of large companies in the Chinese economy has been one of the key factors that have helped the country achieve sustainable growth, ahead of other emerging economies. Companies like Alibaba Group, for instance, have been helping smaller Chinese firms expand their exports by providing guarantees for importers.
That’s according to a McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) study, which surveyed the growth patterns of 71 emerging market economies.
While Chinese companies continue to get bigger, they are also becoming innovative, catching up with the US.
That’s according to the Global Innovation Index: Energizing the World with Innovation.
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The Index, a collaboration between Cornell University, INSEAD, and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as co-publishers, and their Knowledge Partners (Cornell University and Partners report), looks at international patent filings and scientific publishing activity to identify innovation clusters in 126 countries; and develop a global innovation ranking.
China ranks 17 this year, not too far behind America, which ranks 6. Since 2016, China has been in the top 25, and has risen consistently in the rankings.
Walmart has been crowned the world's largest company by the Fortune Global
The findings of Cornell University and partners’ report are similar to Bloomberg’s 2018 innovation ranking, which ranks China 19, behind the US, which ranks 11.
Innovation is crucial for China nowadays. It can help its economy overcome the “middle income trap” -- a situation where economic growth slows down as an emerging market economy reaches middle income; and the Lewis point, a situation where an emerging market economy runs out of cheap labor.