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Editor | NUPIAO Team
Over the past few decades, Chinese companies going global have moved way past the basic stage of just shipping products overseas. Today, with global trade barriers rising and overseas compliance getting stricter, a new industry consensus is taking shape. Beyond just products and tech, Chinese businesses are now hunting for fresh business models and market strategies abroad.
On June 13, the “2026 China Enterprise Global Influence Dialogue,” guided by the Shanghai United Media Group and hosted by Cailian Press, went off without a hitch. During the roundtable forum that day, standout global players like Chery, UCloud, Joyson Preh, and Bolei Technology sat down with the investment firm Weihao Capital. They broke down the shared trends and unique paths of Chinese companies going global, reviewing from different angles how these businesses are projecting their competitive strengths worldwide.
For the longest time, the “cost-effective” tag was the core identity of Chinese manufacturing going global. But let’s face it, the old playbook of just exporting single products is showing its cracks. It leaves companies with weak bargaining power in overseas channels, highly vulnerable to trade barriers and tariff hikes, and constantly squeezed profit margins. Simply put, it’s hard to build long-term, sustainable global competitiveness this way.
That’s why everyone—from automakers and computing power providers to auto parts makers and hardcore tech firms—is breaking out of the product rat race. They’re upgrading from just shipping goods to exporting entire systems and setting industry standards.
Take Chery, for example. As a pioneer in China’s auto export scene, they took their first step in selling cars overseas way back in 2001. Feng Ping, Senior Deputy General Manager of Chery’s International Business Group, shared that over the years, Chery has built a fully integrated overseas ecosystem combining “complete vehicles, smart mobility, and robotics.”
To tackle the headache of high staff turnover and hard-to-standardize service in overseas auto dealerships, Chery deployed its self-developed “Mojia” humanoid robots in overseas 4S stores. These robots handle customer reception, product walkthroughs, and even staff training. Feng pointed out that unlike overseas automakers who mostly use robots for home consumer scenarios, Chery’s robots are deeply rooted in their own industrial ecosystem for commercial use.
Zhu Xiaoyun, Vice President of Joyson Preh, offered a different take. Back in 2011, this Ningbo-based company acquired Germany’s Preh. Fast forward through years of growth, and they’ve transformed from a small outfit into a global auto parts giant with a 60 billion RMB scale. She believes the acquisition was just the starting line. The real grind is merging China’s supply chain efficiency with global R&D capabilities, ultimately empowering the Chinese team to take on high-value global projects.
In highly specialized tech scenes, Bolei Technology, a player in autonomous mining, has also carved out a bold path straight into the high-end global market.
Xuan Yan, CFO and Board Secretary at Bolei Technology, mentioned during the chat that by relying on China’s incredibly complex and strict real-world mining test environments, the company has fine-tuned a complete zero-carbon smart mine solution. Without relying on external resources or retrofitting old vehicles, they go head-to-head with global heavyweights like Caterpillar and Komatsu using their own branded complete vehicles and full smart operation systems.
Xuan believes that the lightning-fast tech iteration in electrification and smart features, paired with China’s supply chain edge, totally backs up this “aim high and strike hard” approach to going global.
Right there at the event, the China Enterprise Globalization Alliance (CEGA) and the Cailian Press Research Institute jointly dropped the “2026 China Enterprise Global Influence Report” (hereinafter referred to as the “Report”) along with the “Top 100 Chinese Enterprises in Global Influence.” The stats show that among the top 100, the internet, resource mining, and mass consumer sectors are really stealing the show.
And the growth of these going-global companies has opened up a ton of opportunities for UCloud, a Shanghai-based cloud computing firm. In the fast-paced digital economy, computing power is the bedrock infrastructure for any company heading overseas. Over the past decade or so, UCloud has set up cloud nodes in over 30 countries and regions, serving more than 80,000 businesses expanding abroad.
Zhou Ke, Senior Vice President of UCloud, pointed out that with countries worldwide tightening up data localization and cybersecurity rules, just relying on cheap cloud products won’t cut it anymore. On one hand, cloud providers are following Chinese companies overseas, setting up nodes in emerging markets like Central Asia, and rolling out localized AI models for minor languages to fit regional digital needs. On the flip side, they’re tying up closely with local telecom operators, exporting their own tech standards, and letting local teams handle data compliance and operations to strike a balance between tech export and local regulations.
Wang Zhi, a Partner at Weihao Capital, chimed in from an industry investment angle, noting that capital has become an absolute must-have for companies going global today. Especially in the semiconductor and AI spaces that Weihao Capital keeps a close eye on, industry globalization boils down to two main plays: first, exporting production capacity by setting up overseas facilities close to end markets to dodge trade barriers and other curveballs; second, exporting capital by using M&A to quickly build up competitive muscle.
This roundtable sent out a crystal-clear message: the globalization of Chinese companies has entered a whole new era. Overseas markets aren’t questioning the product chops of Chinese businesses anymore. The new hurdle? How companies can pool global resources, blend into local ecosystems, and set their own standards and rules.
So, how should companies gear up for this? Xuan Yan summed it up by saying, first, businesses need to ride the trend, and second, they need their own focus and judgment. “Going global is just two simple words, but overseas markets aren’t a monolith. Where to go first and where to go next depends on the global landscape and your own readiness,” she said. Wang Zhi added a reminder from the investment side: when heading overseas, a company must have a crystal-clear strategy and know exactly why they’re doing it in the first place.
