From low-cost processed products to high-grade equipment manufacturing; from semi-finished products to upscale high-speed rail; from a stage of winning by low price to the "Chinese standard" that is promoted throughout the world… 30 years have passed by, and Chinese enterprises and Chinese brands have marched steadily outwards, each writing their own new page in the story of China.

Quality is the lifeblood of a company

The most famous story about a Chinese company and product quality is still the story of "Haier smashing refrigerators". In 1985, after recovering more than 70 problematic refrigerators, factory director Zhang Ruimin gave orders to smash them all, proclaiming that "defective products are sub-quality products". From a small local plant to the "white empire" that now covers the world, the story of Haier represents Chinese enterprises' unremitting pursuit of product quality.

The same story also happened in Zoomlion, an engineering equipment giant in China which started its system reform 20 years ago. In 1993, the first generation of a concrete delivery pump developed by Zoomlion was warmly welcomed by the market. But the following year the company called a stop to all of this output solely because market feedback showed there were flaws in quality. 20 years have passed by, and the only Chinese crane brand at Milan Expo 2015, the Zoomlion ZTC250, has been working for five months, 10 hours a day non-stop. Its precision and reliability have won high acclaim.

Core technologies in their own hands

Changan Auto has been ranked first in Chinese-brand sales for 8 years in a row. Its self-owned brand automobile production and sales have reached 10 million, and it ranks first of the independent brand enterprises in China. Changan adheres to its principle of investing more than 5 percent of every year's sales revenues in R&D. Starting from 2003, Changan has been setting up R&D centers throughout the globe — now cities like Chongqing, Shanghai, Beijing, Turin of Italy, Yokohama of Japan, Nottingham of UK, Detroit of US, all have Changan R&D centers.

Another powerful brand in this field is Hisense. It was once challenged by the OLED (organic light emitting diodes) co-produced by Japan and South Korea. To overcome the problem, Hisense put a huge effort into research and development, filing more than 170 technical patents, and finally it came out with the ULED (Ultra LED), which has now become the mainstream technique for picture quality.

A single enterprise represents the overall image of China

Last year, China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) won contracts worth 11.97 billion dollars in Nigeria, which set a new record for China's overseas contracted projects. The longest modern railway in Africa, the biggest affordable housing project in Zimbabwe, the drinking water project in Zambia, the best hospital in the Caribbean area, behind each of these project, CRCC's endeavors and hard work are to be found.

Because of its remarkable contribution, Cao Baogang, CEO of CRCC has been elected as tribal chief in two Nigerian states; Nigerian people celebrate when they see carriages with CRCC logos; the government of Angola wrote the name of CRCC on railway subgrade, and built a friendship monument to commemorate the great contribution CRCC had made to the country. All of these stem from one simple principle: whenever a Chinese company goes abroad, as well as engaging in their local business, they always remember that they carry the image of China. 

This article is edited and translated from 《中国品牌在海外：中国企业托起品牌群像》, source: People's Daily Overseas Edition, author: Shen Mengzhe