China overtakes US on global business ranking

（Photo/Chinanews）

For the first time since the debut of the Fortune Global 500 in 1990, a country other than the US is at the top of the ranks of global large businesses.

Chinese companies account for 129, including 10 Taiwanese companies, of the world's largest corporations by revenue, surpassing the US with 121, according to a list released by Fortune on Monday.

The Fortune Global 500 is an annual ranking of the top 500 enterprises worldwide as measured by revenue.

US retail giant Walmart ranked No.1 for the sixth consecutive year, followed by Sinopec Group, Shell, China National Petroleum Corp and State Grid Corp of China.

As the second-largest economy in the world, China provides a massive domestic market for enterprises to grow, Wang Danqing, co-partner of Ruixin Zhicheng Consultancy, told the Global Times on Monday.

Experts attributed the growth to the China's continuous efforts to expand domestic demand, which helps many domestic companies pursue rapid development.

Chinese enterprises in the leading places on the list are mainly state-owned enterprises (SOEs) because they are very internationalized and have a high industry aggregation as a result of reform, Wang said.

"In recent years, many state-owned enterprises have carried out restructuring and mergers, not only with other SOEs but also private enterprise so that their core competency is enhanced," Wang said, noting that this offered them an edge to pursue further growth.

Among 25 companies that were newly added to the ranking, 13 were from China, including China Development Bank, train manufacturer CRRC Corp, home appliance giant Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliances Co and smartphone maker Xiaomi.

The 9-year-old Xiaomi is the youngest enterprise on the top 500 list in 2019.

"Xiaomi is a fast-growing company that has a good start in creating new retail models by applying the internet-plus strategy in its range of intelligent equipment. It has to strengthen its core competence to open the upscale market and keep growing," Jin Baisong, an independent economist based in Beijing, told the Global Times on Monday.

Chinese companies are expected to deeply integrate their operations into global value chains to increase sustainable development competitiveness, said Jin.

"Huawei is a good example. The company has grown very quickly by building global value chains, while competing globally in accordance with internationally accepted rules," Jin said.

Huawei rose to No.61 on the list from No.72 last year.

Chinese and US companies on the list are mainly in five industries - energy and mining, commercial trade, banking, insurance and aerospace/defense.

Many Chinese private companies also have large growth potential. Six out of the 10 companies that reported fastest growth in the ranking are Chinese companies, including property developer Country Garden, e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings and retail giant Suning.

More and more Chinese companies got on the top 500 list because of their rapid growth, but we shouldn't get too excited - quality is more important than quantity, Jin said.

Chinese companies' revenue accounted for 25.6 percent of the Global 500 total, behind 28.8 percent for the US.