Huang Sheng, a professor of finance at the China Europe International Business School: The way out for Chinese enterprises going global and the globalization path amid the changing situation of the trade war | 2025 Overseas Expansion Conference
On July 25th, guided by the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province, the Secretariat of the China Cooperation Center for Special Economic Zones of BRICS Countries, the Hangzhou Bureau of Commerce, and the Qiantang District Bureau of Commerce, and jointly hosted by 36Kr and Qiantang Construction Group, the 2025 "From 'Ingenuity' to the 'World'" Overseas Expansion Conference will grandly kick off at the Grand Mercure Hangzhou Qiantang. As a brand - new IP event of 36Kr focusing on the fields of globalization and overseas expansion, the conference will set up a main venue and a sub - venue: the "Investing in BRICS" - Country - to - country Cooperation Matching Meeting. The main venue of the conference will be divided into two sections: "Finding Certainty in Uncertainty" and "Doing Business Globally", focusing on popular overseas expansion fields such as consumption, technology, e - commerce, finance, and new energy. It will cover more than 10 keynote speeches, 5 round - table discussions, and the release of the East Forward 2025 Overseas Globalization Innovation List, decoding the definite logic of the coordinated growth of "product - technology - ecosystem" and providing a referable global development path for enterprises to break through the global fog and build sustainable overseas expansion capabilities.
On that day, Huang Sheng, a professor of finance at the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), will bring a keynote sharing on "Analysis of the Trade War and Strategies for Chinese Enterprises to Break the Deadlock".
The following is the content of Huang Sheng's speech, edited by 36Kr:
Respected leaders, distinguished guests, and entrepreneurs sitting here:
Good morning, everyone! I'm very honored to be invited by the organizer, 36Kr, to this overseas expansion event to share with you the research results of CEIBS on the global overseas expansion of Chinese enterprises and our thoughts on future development directions. These results mainly come from CEIBS' 30 - year educational practice, especially the rich cases of outstanding Chinese enterprises in various industries where CEIBS' 16,000 EMBA alumni work during their internationalization process. By combining these cases with academic theories, we have constructed a research framework, which is also the key content I want to report today.
CEIBS' EMBA program offers many courses directly related to enterprises' overseas expansion. To our delight, we just came back from Yiwu yesterday. A classmate who participated in our EMBA Africa course gave feedback that he gained a lot from the course. In the course, we connected him with local African governments, chambers of commerce, and successful Chinese overseas - expanded enterprises such as Transsion Holdings. With the help of this course, he quickly found a cooperation partner in Africa, established an office, and recruited employees, completing the key layout in just 4 days, which shows high efficiency. This fully demonstrates the vitality and achievements of our school's alumni in overseas expansion practice.
Currently, we are collaborating with government departments in Beijing, Shanghai and other places to conduct special research on promoting Chinese enterprises' overseas expansion. Through in - depth research and interviews, we share the research results with the government to help them explore more effective ways to promote the "going - out" of enterprises under their jurisdiction and provide practical solutions.
Today, I will share from the following three aspects: First, quickly analyze the essence of the trade war; second, report on the overseas expansion practice of Chinese enterprises based on the data of listed companies; finally, focus on introducing the methodology and research results of Chinese enterprises' internationalization that we have sorted out, including the analysis framework, the reference of the internationalization achievements of multinational enterprises, as well as the overseas expansion models, successful strategies, and challenges of key industries.
I. Analysis of Recent Tariffs and the Trade War
There has been a lot of discussion about the trade war in all sectors.
From an economic perspective, the essence of globalization is division of labor and cooperation. Due to different resource endowments in different regions, countries give full play to their own advantages in production and then exchange with each other. In the past, Chinese enterprises manufactured products and exported them to the United States, obtained US dollars, and then invested in the United States. This not only promoted the rise of US asset prices but also consolidated the international status of the US dollar. Both sides benefited from the original model. However, this model is unsustainable because it has brought problems to both countries. In the United States, those who have benefited the most from internationalization are not ordinary working people but multinational corporations and their shareholders and capital behind them. The proportion of labor income is relatively low, which has led to dissatisfaction among the US working class. China has long been at the middle and lower end of the industrial chain, producing products such as shirts and socks. With development, China naturally hopes to move up the value chain and enter high - end industries such as aircraft manufacturing. This difference in development demands has led to conflicts. Eventually, there is a trend that the United States is becoming more and more "Chinese - like", and China is becoming more and more "American - like".
The so - called "the United States is becoming more and more Chinese - like" means that the United States needs to solve the supply - side problem. The United States has strong demand but insufficient supply capacity. Therefore, like China, it needs to strengthen its own supply capacity and promote the return of manufacturing. However, not all manufacturing industries can return to the United States. From the data, since 2010, the proportion of manufacturing in private - sector employment in the United States has basically remained stable and no longer decreased, staying at around 10%. This means that low - end manufacturing continues to move out, while the number of jobs created by high - end manufacturing is increasing. The United States has redistributed high - end and low - end manufacturing in its industrial structure. In addition, the United States must also strengthen high - end manufacturing for economic and national security reasons. For example, if the United States cannot manufacture ships, its military power will be severely restricted.
China is becoming more and more "American - like", that is, China needs to focus on solving the demand - side problem, which is a systematic project. China needs to vigorously cultivate the middle class, change the concept that investment is more important than consumption, and shift the focus to consumption. This is not a cyclical adjustment but a profound change in the development mode and structure. From the external environment, China's strong production capacity, complete supply - chain system, professional talent team, and strong government support have made its domestic manufacturing capacity far exceed its own digestion capacity. It is an inevitable choice for Chinese enterprises to "go out". In this process, the most important thing for Chinese enterprises is to forge global competence, which is also the direction that CEIBS has been promoting in the past 30 years. Internationalization is the core gene of our business school. Take helping Yiwu alumni go to Africa as an example. This is a vivid practice of CEIBS' EMBA program in cultivating students' "going - out" ability.
At the same time, risk control is crucial in the internationalization process of Chinese enterprises. Through studying the successful experiences of CEIBS alumni enterprises, we found that these enterprises rarely use a single model for overseas expansion. Instead, they flexibly choose diversified models according to different regions and different stages of overseas expansion, including diversification in regions, means, and methods.
II. Overview of Chinese Enterprises' Overseas Expansion
Next, we will macroscopically understand the current situation of Chinese enterprises' overseas expansion through the data of Chinese A - share listed companies. In first - tier cities, overseas expansion of enterprises has become a hot topic, and enterprises in second - and third - tier cities have also reached a relatively high level of "going out". As representatives of excellent domestic enterprises, the overseas expansion situation of Chinese listed companies is of great reference value.
The research shows that two - thirds of Chinese companies that report overseas revenues have accounted for the total. These companies are not concentrated in light industry or low - end manufacturing but are mainly distributed in mid - and high - end manufacturing industries. In the past 20 years, the proportion of overseas revenues has increased significantly, by 50 times, while the operating revenues of A - share listed companies have only increased by 20 times during the same period. The growth of overseas business far exceeds that of domestic business. However, on the whole, the proportion of overseas business in the total revenues of Chinese listed companies is 13%, which still has a lot of room for improvement compared with the 40% of overseas business of US S&P 500 multinational companies. Further analysis shows that the proportion of overseas business revenues is also mainly concentrated in mid - and high - end industries. The gross profit situation also shows that Chinese enterprises in the technology and manufacturing fields have outstanding performance in overseas expansion.
III. Research on Chinese Enterprises' Overseas Expansion
Our research covers CEIBS' EMBA alumni enterprises of various scales and development stages, including established enterprises such as BYD, Geely, Lenovo, and Huawei, as well as some emerging "born - global" enterprises, such as AI technology companies. Such enterprises aim at the global market from the beginning of their entrepreneurship. Some enterprises are even born and grow overseas first and then enter the domestic market. In the research framework, we have in - depth research on enterprises' overseas expansion demands, motivations, challenges and problems faced during the overseas expansion process, and their coping strategies. Through sorting out, we summarize the success factors and also pay attention to potential risks and lessons.
We have focused on studying the successful experiences of multinational enterprises from Japan, South Korea and other countries in China. These experiences can provide many inspirations for Chinese enterprises in terms of market entry mode selection, implementation of localization strategies, and long - term investment and sustainable development. For example, in terms of market entry mode, enterprises in different industries choose joint - venture, wholly - owned or mixed models according to their own situations; in terms of localization strategies, multinational enterprises in China have achieved full localization of products, talents, and supply chains; moreover, they pay attention to long - term investment, continuously layout local infrastructure construction, brand building, and R & D, and finally achieve success.
We have comprehensively studied the main industries of Chinese enterprises' overseas expansion, covering multiple fields from high - tech to catering, medical devices, and trendy toys. Take the trendy toy industry as an example. Pop Mart, an enterprise of CEIBS' EMBA alumni, has outstanding performance in the global market. Even in London, consumers will line up to buy its LABUBU series products. We have conducted in - depth research on such enterprises.
Looking back at the overseas expansion models of Chinese enterprises in the past few decades, in the early days, state - owned enterprises, central enterprises, and large private enterprises mainly expanded overseas through mergers and acquisitions. However, affected by various factors, especially the complex political and economic environment in Europe and the United States, it has become more difficult to acquire high - quality assets, and the merger and acquisition model has gradually withdrawn from the mainstream. Currently, more enterprises are turning to the model of local factory construction and local operation. If facing risks, enterprises will choose the joint - venture model, including inter - industry joint - ventures and joint - ventures between industries and capital. For example, Li Ning cooperates with well - known investment institutions to establish overseas operating enterprises. In the new energy industry, some enterprises encountered obstacles from local governments when "going out", so they explored the technology licensing model and even sold the local established production capacity to local enterprises while retaining equity, realizing the exchange of assets and local enterprise equity. In addition, local franchising, brand IP globalization, and cross - border e - commerce models are booming in regions such as Zhejiang. Large enterprises usually use a combination of multiple models for overseas expansion to reduce risks and improve the success rate.
Taking overseas factory construction as an example, enterprises need to make a hierarchical layout. Manufacturing industries going to the United States are mostly industries with a high degree of automation, mainly recruiting local management talents; while enterprises deploying in Southeast Asia value the local labor market and the advantage of being close to China's supply chain. However, the whole process is not smooth sailing, and enterprises face many challenges.
To summarize the commonalities of many successful overseas - expanded enterprises:
First, they have a clear overseas expansion strategy, clearly define their goals, advantages and disadvantages, reasonably plan the investment period and risk tolerance, and formulate differentiated strategies for different markets.
Second, enterprises know that "knowing the enemy and yourself, you can fight a hundred battles with no danger of defeat". They make full preparations before going overseas, strengthen their core competitiveness, and deeply understand local rules, environment, and elements.
This also explains why CEIBS moves its classrooms to the four continents of the world, connects alumni with local governments, regulatory agencies, and chambers of commerce, and helps them get familiar with the local situation. Successful overseas - expanded enterprises often have innovation capabilities in products and technologies and have unique advantages. Even when facing tariff impacts, they are difficult to be replaced. For example, some enterprises in Yiwu, even if they only produce T - shirts, still maintain competitiveness with a 30% tariff increase due to the uniqueness of their product technologies.
Most overseas - expanded enterprises use e - commerce platforms and adopt localization strategies. Take Pop Mart as an example. It develops special blind - box products according to the cultures and environments of different countries; the game company Mihoyo designs game characters according to local cultures, which is similar to Disney's practice of integrating Chinese auspicious cloud elements into the castle design after entering China. These are all manifestations of paying attention to localization strategies. In addition, enterprises actively introduce international talents, achieve talent localization, and enhance their global influence by obtaining international certifications and spreading through social channels. Chinese enterprises have unique advantages in building user community ecosystems. By closely integrating with local communities, they integrate themselves into the local market and enhance brand recognition.
However, the overseas expansion of Chinese enterprises is not smooth sailing and faces many challenges. It is difficult to make quick profits like trading enterprises in the short term. There are problems in talent recruitment and management, cross - cultural management, and labor relations handling. Compliance and legal risks cannot be ignored. At the same time, the internal management efficiency of enterprises needs to be improved, strategic planning and decision - making need to be more scientific and reasonable, and the uncertainty of the external environment also troubles enterprises. Some large enterprises are also affected in markets such as Brazil.
Generally speaking, the key factors for the successful overseas expansion of Chinese enterprises include: the differentiated advantages of products and technologies, making them difficult to be replaced in the competition; having in - depth localization capabilities, integrating into the local market from strategy, employment to supply chain; adhering to long - term strategic patience, continuously investing, and achieving steady development.
In short, the global overseas expansion of Chinese enterprises is an inevitable path. In the medium and long term, enterprises should not only focus on business decisions at the product and supply - chain levels but also pay attention to original innovation. By observing the overseas expansion practices of excellent Chinese enterprises such as CEIBS' EMBA alumni enterprises, I am full of confidence in the overseas expansion prospects of Chinese enterprises. This confidence not only comes from the possible achievements of enterprises in global operation in the future but also from the fact that with the progress and success of Chinese enterprises' globalization process, Chinese culture will shine on the international stage, and Chinese civilization will be more widely spread and recognized. This is not only the success of Chinese enterprises but also the glory of the Chinese nation.
That's all for today's sharing. Thank you!