China: Things where its better than the rest of the world


China is a miracle story.
There are endless and infinite possibilities in terms of areas where China is better than rest of the World. Out of all the points I am going to mention, one is excruciatingly important.
China has brought over 800 million people out of poverty and hunger & given them good housing, clothing, and education. All this in three decades. It lifted over 68 million people out of poverty in just 5 years! Nothing as beneficial to humanity has happened in the history of this world.
Apart from this, here are the top most areas that come to my mind:
  • Manufacturing:
    • No bonus points here.
    • From steel, electronics, textile to plastic products. Name any product and there is at least a 50% chance that China is an unbeatable manufacturing king in that industry!
  • Bullet Trains
    • It accounts for about two-thirds of the world's high-speed rail tracks in commercial service.
    • It is the world's longest HSR network and is also the most extensively used.
    • Picture this: China launched High Speed Train Operations Program in 2008 and by 2013, it had the World’s Largest High-Speed Train Network across the world. This speaks about endless opportunities of magnanimous possibilities in China.
  • Cities
    • When the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, only about 10 percent of the country’s population lived in cities. Today, 10 percent of the world’s population – more than half of China’s citizens – lives in Chinese cities. Ten of the world’s fifteen fastest growing cities are in China, and at current growth rates China could add about 350 million people – more than the population of the United States – to its cities over the next two decades. By 2030, China’s urbanization level will rise to 65 percent.
    • Chinese Cities are world-class with leading innovative infrastructure. There is so no country in the world which can compete with China on Urban Transformation.
  • Subway Systems:
    • With Rapid Urbanisation, China created behemoth subway systems.
    • As of 2018, 32 Chinese Cities have subway systems and 13 more are under-construction. In 2011, only 11 Chinese Cities had subway system. So, picture this, 21 Chinese Cities got subway systems within 7 years. That’s a staggering 3 cities every year on average!
    • The Shanghai Metro is the longest metro system by route length. The Beijing Subway is the metro system with the highest ridership.
  • Forex Reserves
    • As of March 2018, China’s foreign reserves (ex. gold) (excluding Macau & HK) stood at $3,142,820 Million. That’s $3.14 Trillion. The closest competitor to China’s foreign reserves is Japan with $ 1.26 Trillion. The 3rd country is Switzerland with $737 Billion.
    • China, again, is an unbeatable king in terms of Forex Reserves. This is largely due to Chinese Economy being a export based economy instead of consumption based. However, this is changing faster than you can imagine.
  • Billionaires
    • China makes a new billionaire every 5 days. Yes, you read it right!
    • To give you a perspective, over this past year, the US added only 19 new billionaires, while a total of 210 popped up in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
    • For the third straight year, Beijing has been named as the billionaire capital of the world, with 131 billionaires residing in the city, 37 more than last year. New York City ranked second, followed by Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Shanghai. Cities like Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Foshan, Chengdu, and Ningbo also made the top 30.
    • Hurun Global Rich List 2018, has Tencent’s Pony Ma as the richest man in China (or Asia) with a net worth of $47 billion. Behind him is Xu Jiayin, the chairman of Guangzhou-based property giant Evergrande, who has had himself quite the year, increasing his wealth by 242% to $41 billion. Ever heard of Tencent/Tony Ma/Evergrande/Xu Jiayin? I guess, no?
    • Other Chinese Billionaires and their cities:
  • Luxury Goods
    • In 2012, China surpassed Japan as the world's largest luxury market.
    • According to the consulting firm McKinsey & Company, 80% of Chinese luxury goods buyers are under 45, compared with 30% of luxury goods buyers in the United States and 19% in Japan.
    • Retail sales in China account for only 7% of global retail sales of luxury consumer goods; however, Chinese buyers account for 25% of global retail sales of luxury consumer goods. Many shops in international travel destinations have specialized staff devoted to Chinese customers.
    • Interesting Fact: Ever heard of Kweichow Moutai? In 1972, notable Moutai aficionados was late premier Zhou Enlai, who toasted Richard Nixon with a shot glass of the liquor during a state banquet welcoming the former US president’s historical visit. Little did Zhou know back then, Baijiu distiller Moutai saw its market capitalisation hit record US$71.55bn, overtaking Johnnie Walker whisky maker Diageo’s market value of US$71.05bn in 2017. Thus, becoming the World’s Most Valuable Liquor Firm! Moutai is a luxury alcohol brand, a small example of Chinese Luxurious Appetite!
  • Skyscrapers:
    • In 2017, Across the globe, a grand total of 144 new buildings over 200 meters (660 feet) tall were constructed including 15 "supertall buildings" at least 300 meters (980 feet) high.
    • Nowhere is more obsessed with building skywards than China. This year, China finished an impressive 76 buildings 200 meters tall or higher. The United States comes a very distant second, only building ten skyscrapers by comparison. South Korea rounds off the top-three with a grand total of seven while its isolated neighbor to the north completed four.
    • Interesting Fact: Chinese construction firm has erected a 57-storey skyscraper in just 19 days! Talk about speed and efficiency!
  • Tourism Spending
    • In 2012, China became the world’s top spender in international tourism and has since led global outbound travel. Tourism expenditure from China surged from $24 billion in 2006 (3% of the world’s total) to $261 billion in 2016, or 21% of the world’s international tourism spending.
    • Over 1,235 million international tourist arrivals were recorded globally in 2016, some 47 million more than in 2015, or an increase of 3.9%, according to the latest issue of the UNWTO World Tourism Barometer.
  • Internet Industry:
    • Let me simply stick to facts and data here:
      • Market Size: China’s internet users grew in 2016 by the size of Ukraine’s population to 731 million. On another note, Tencent, a company you probably didn’t even know about, is bigger than Facebook!
      • Internet Based Sharing Economy: In China, where dockless bike sharing began, shared bikes are now the third major mode of public transit. MoBike and Ofo, the two major Chinese bike-sharing companies, each has more than 7 million bikes in operation in more than 170 Chinese cities. Chinese cities’ high density—approximately 100,000 people per city block—makes every street corner a possible bike hub, with many sporting 20-30 bikes available at any one time.
      • Mobile Payments: Mobile payment transactions in China reached a record 81 trillion yuan (US$12.8 trillion) from January to October in 2017, driven by the vast number of consumers across the country who have looked beyond credit cards to more convenient, cashless systems. To give you a perspective, this number dwarfed the estimated US$49.3 billion in total mobile payment transactions in the United States in 2017. “By 2021, 79.3 per cent of smartphone users in China will be tapping, scanning and swiping at the POS,” said eMarketer forecasting analyst Shelleen Shum. “By comparison, the US will have 23 per cent of smartphone users doing so, and in Germany it will be 15 per cent.”
      • E-Commerce: Ecommerce sales in China are expected to pass $1.132 trillion in 2017, accounting for nearly half of the worldwide retail ecommerce sales. China’s ecommerce sales will account for 23.1% of all retail sales in China in 2017, however, this figure is expected to increase to 40.8% by 2021. China is the world’s largest ecommerce market with a significant lead on other markets including the US ($450.81bn), UK ($110.07bn) and Japan ($95.33bn).
      • Indigenization: What sounds rather weird for rest of the world, is in fact, one of China’s Biggest Strength. Internet Limitation. By not allowing Google, Facebook and other ‘free world’ web services, China created an indigenous internet industry. Today, it is already World’s Largest. In this process, China created multiple Internet Conglomerates like Netease, 360, Alibaba, Tencent & Baidu. As of 2018, only 2 non-US companies by market capitalisation are Tencent & Alibaba.
  • Banks
    • List of Largest Banks in the world! Need I say more?
  • Electric Vehicles
    • Sales of domestically built new energy passenger cars totaled over 1.2 million units between 2011 and 2017, of which, a total of 579,000 were sold in 2017, representing about half of global plug-in car sales in 2017
    • The Chinese plug-in electric bus stock grew nearly sixfold over 2014, and almost doubled from 2015 to 2016
    • BYD Auto was the world's top selling plug-in manufacturer with over 100,000 units sold in 2016, higher than Tesla.
    • It is simply mind-boggling, that in 2012 China had all of 3,000 EV sales. The US was already at 52,000 at the time. Three years later, they have apparently crossed 200,000 sales for the year, with 35,000 EV sold in December 2015 alone.
  • Solar Energy
    • China has been the world's largest manufacturer of solar panels since 2008.
    • By the end of 2016, total PV capacity had increased to over 77.4 GW, and in 2017 China was the first country to pass 100 GW of cumulative installed PV capacity.
    • Industry projections estimated that, by the end of 2017, China would have enough manufacturing capacity to produce 51 GW of PV modules per year, an amount over twice as large as 2010's global production of 24 GW.
    • China is the first country for solar water heating capacity in the world, with 290 GWth in operation at the end of 2014, accounting for about 70% of the total world capacity.
    • In 2015, China became the world's largest producer of photovoltaic power, narrowly surpassing Germany. By the end of 2016, total PV capacity had increased to over 77.4 GW.
    • China’s cumulative installed PV capacity in gigawatts since 2007:
  • World’s Biggest Economic Entity
    • Let me share something you would probably have never heard of.
    • State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission: As of 2017, its companies had a combined revenue of more than 23.4 trillion yuan (US$3.6 trillion) and an estimated stock value of 50 trillion yuan (US$7.6 trillion), making it the largest economic entity in the world.
    • It is the World’s Largest Conglomerate. I would like to call it ‘World’s Largest Company’ but since they don’t officially call themselves as a company, so who am I..
    • It was founded in 2003 through the consolidation of various other industry-specific ministries.
  • Artificial Intelligence:
    • Although, China is not the leader in AI currently. But, as it’s part growth story, it is on its way sooner than you think it is!
    • In April 2018, CNN noted that the two AI startups with the highest evaluation, SenseTime (4.5 billion USD) and Yitu Technology (2.4 billion USD), are both Chinese.
    • In 2017, China's patents in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry accounted for about 22 percent of the total globally
    • By 2030, the State Council targets China to be the global leader in the development of artificial intelligence theory and technology. The State Council claims that China will have developed a "mature new-generation AI theory and technology system." If you read this answer from the beginning, you would realize that there are very few things that Chinese government doesn’t accomplish, whenever it’s serious about achieving something! AI is definitely not an exception.
  • Overseas Investments
Prepare your seat belt for this one!
  • Do you know who owns 25% of Hilton Group?
  • Do you know who formed the world's first alliance of low-cost carriers, U-FLY Alliance?
  • Do you know who owns Ingram Micro? (One of the largest distributor companies in the world, probably your iPhone was delivered to an Apple Store by them!)
  • Who purchased Carlson Hotels (owner of the Radisson brand) which included a majority interest in US$7 billion in sales Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group of Brussels? It is also the largest shareholder of their competitor NH Hotel Group (third in the European ranking for business hotels).
  • Who owns 8.8% of Deutsche Bank?
  • Who owns 13% of Virgin Australia?
  • Who owns Cassa Hotel New York ?
  • Who owns Seaco (world's 5th largest marine container leasing company)?
  • Who owns 48 percent stake in Aigle Azur, France's second largest airline?
  • Who purchased TIP Trailer Services, Europe's largest truck and trailer leasing company ?
  • Who owns 15% of Red Lion Hotels (Redline owns Holiday Inn, Ramada, and Quality Inn along with Holiday Inn Express, Fairfield Inn, and Hampton Inn)
  • Who owns Swisport (providing airport ground and cargo handling services and active at more than 315 locations in 50 countries)?
  • Who purchased Irish aircraft leasing company Avolon? Avolon, completed the purchase of CIT Group's aircraft leasing business for US$10.38 billion making them the 3rd largest aircraft leasing company in the world with a fleet of 868 aircraft.
  • Who owns ICE - International Currency Exchange?
  • Who purchased gategroup, the 2nd largest airline-catering company in the world?
  • Who purchased 49.99% of Air France's catering and cleaning subsidiary, Servair? When combined with previously purchased Gategroup, they will own and operate the world's largest airline catering company.
  • Who owns 25 percent of Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc.?
  • Who purchased 245 Park Avenue for $2.21 billion, one of the highest prices ever paid for a New York City skyscraper?
  • Who owns 82.5% equity interest in Frankfurt–Hahn Airport?
  • Who own 31.6% of Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International Airport - Brazil's second busiest airport?
ANSWER - HNA Group. A conglomerate from China! Unbelievable?
Keep your seatbelt on:-
  • Who owns Volvo cars?
  • Who owns 51% in Lotus Automobiles?
  • Who owns the London Taxi Company?
ANSWER : Geely Automobiles from China.
  • Who owns Motorola?
  • Who owns IBM's personal computer business?
ANSWER: Lenovo, A Chinese technology company!
  • Who owns 12% of Snapchat?
  • Who owns 5% of Tesla?
ANSWER : Tencent, the company that owns Wechat and is bigger than Facebook!
  • Who owns Pirelli? And, is on the way to acquire Syngenta (world’s largest crop chemical producer. In 2009, it ranked third in seeds and biotechnology sales)
ANSWER: ChemChina (Remember State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission? ChemChina is a part of it)
  • Who owns 41% in ElectraNet, a 19.9% stake in AusNet Services, and 60% stake in Jemena? (3 primary electricity transmission companies in Australia).
ANSWER : Meet a company that generates more revenue than Apple Inc. and Boeing Co. combined and serves one in seven people on the planet. Meet, a company that may be buying power assets near you - State Grid Corporation of China
  • Who owns AC Milan (ranked as the eighth-wealthiest football club in the world by Forbes magazine as of 2014, making it the wealthiest in Italian football)
ANSWER: Chinese investors Rossoneri Sport Investment Lux
  • Who owns 13% of Manchester City FC?
ANSWER: Chinese consortium, CMC.
  • Who owns the famed Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York & Strategic Hotels & Resorts (which owns JW Marriot Essex House in New York and the Four Seasons in Washington)
ANSWER: Anbang. The Financial Times has described Anbang as "one of China’s most politically connected companies.
  • Who owns the appliance division of General Electric (It has 14% market share in the home appliance market in the United States)?
ANSWER: Haier
  • Who owns Legendary Entertainment (it produced films like The Dark Knight, Inception, Jurassic World and Straight Outta Compton, etc.)
ANSWER: Wanda Group
—————-
The Chinese are absolute leaders in company acquisitions and investments. Somehow, they always a find a way to make a deal. Without knowing, you might be using a product/service which you may think is your countries’ company, but, mind you, check again!
P.S. - If you know more such deals, please share them in comments. Thanks!
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Sources- China lifting 800 million people out of poverty is historic: World Bank, China has built the world’s largest bullet-train network, China’s Urban Transformation, List of metro systems - Wikipedia, List of countries by foreign-exchange reserves (excluding gold) - Wikipedia, China is churning out a new billionaire every 5 days, Luxury goods of China - Wikipedia, Moutai now world’s most valuable liquor company, https://www.forbes.com/sites/nia..., List of cities with the most skyscrapers - Wikipedia, https://thepienews.com/news/chin..., List of public corporations by market capitalization - Wikipedia, Bike-sharing Data and Cities: Lessons From China’s Experience, China is leapfrogging credit cards and going straight to mobile payments, China’s ecommerce market to pass $1.1tn in 2017, List of public corporations by market capitalization - Wikipedia, List of largest banks - Wikipedia, Top 10 Countries in the Global EV Revolution: 2016 Edition, Electric car use by country - Wikipedia, China becomes a 'driving power' for solar energy with $86.5 billion invested last year, Solar power in China - Wikipedia, Artificial intelligence industry in China - Wikipedia, China's AI patents account for 22 pct of world's total: official, HNA Group - Wikipedia, Virgin Australia sells stake to China's HNA Aviation Group , China's Tencent takes 12 percent stake in Snap as shares plunge, Lenovo - Wikipedia, IBM - Wikipedia, How WeChat Owner Tencent Is Expanding Beyond China, ChemChina - Wikipedia, State Grid Corporation of China - Wikipedia, AC Milan sold for €740m to Chinese consortium in biggest-ever Far East investment in European game, The 5 Biggest Chinese Investments In The U.S. In 2016, Anbang - Wikipedia
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