China’s state-owned giants given new order: create global industrial champions

  • Head of central government agency in charge of supervising China’s state-owned assets calls on biggest state firms to lead the charge in creating world-beating companies
  • While Beijing has downplayed its ‘Made in China 2025’ industrial plan since the start of the trade war with the United States, the initiative’s spirit lives on

An engineer on a bicycle checks pipelines at an oil refinery of the state-run China National Petroleum Corp – now the world’s fourth-largest company, according to the latest Fortune Global 500 list. Photo: Reuters

In the midst of its escalating economic conflict with the US, China’s largest state-owned enterprises have been given a new directive: work with small and medium-sized firms to build new global champions.

In an interview with the state-run Xinhua news agency published on Monday, Hao Peng, chairman and Communist Party secretary of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), said state firms, particularly those owned by the central government, should team up with smaller firms to build up supply chains and form industrial clusters in sectors where China has a leading edge. The commission supervises the central government’s state-owned assets.

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