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Writer's picturePeter XIAO

The Ten Largest Chinese Companies in the World


After the Opening Up and Reforms policy in 1978, China’s economic influence in the world grows at a miraculous rate. International investors are not just amazed by China’s speed of growth but also about the fact that China now has some of the most successful companies in the world. These companies have shocked the world by their total revenues and also market capitalisation. However there are also some concerning facts about the success of these companies. After careful analysis we can tell that nine out of ten of these companies are state owned enterprises. This has clearly shown that China remains a country where state owned enterprises play the major role in the economy. Many private owned enterprises often find themselves disadvantaged compared to these corporate giants when it comes to access to capital and also equal treatments from the government. The fair treatment of all private owned enterprises remains a major issue for the Chinese government to tackle today.




The biggest Chinese company in the world in terms of total revenue and net income is China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. The total revenue for China Petroleum in the financial year 2019 was $326.3 billion. And the group’s net income in 2019 was $5.6 billion. China Petroleum & Chemical is a company that specialised with the production and distribution of multiple petrochemical and petroleum products. It is considered to be one of the largest energy and oil groups in the world.



The second largest Chinese company in the world is PetroChina Co. Ltd. The total revenue for PetroChina Co. Ltd. in the financial year 2019 was $303.7 billion and the group’s net income was $2.7 billion. Like its counterpart Sinopec, PetroChina is also a Chinese corporate giant in the field of energy and gas. The company is heavily engaged in oil exploration, development, production and sales. The main reason of why the two largest Chinese companies internationally are in the field of energy could be explained by China’s growing demand on oil and other natural resources. China now has the largest automobiles market in the world and therefore a rise in the demand for energy is inevitable. The two companies also enjoy special license from the government on oil exploration and sales in China and therefore the two companies are considered to be the Oligopoly in the Chinese energy market.



The third largest Chinese company in the world is Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd. The group’s total revenue in the financial year 2019 was $155.1 billion and its net income was $17.5 billion. Ping An Group is a global financial services company that provides property, casualty and other life insurance products. The Chinese holding conglomerate is considered to be China’s biggest insurer with its headquarter in Shenzhen, Guangdong.



The fourth largest Chinese company in the world is China Railway Group Ltd. The group’s total revenue in 2019 was $137.6 billion and its net income was $3.8 billion. The company is China’s largest operator in transportation infrastructure. Following China’s ‘The Belt and Road’ Initiative in 2013, the company is now heavily involved in infrastructure project in Africa and Southeast Asia. China is now being considered by many as a country with extremely advanced infrastructure. And now it begins to export and share its experiences in infrastructure with many other developing countries. China Railway Group benefits greatly under this general background.



The fifth largest Chinese company in the world is Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. The company is considered to be China’s biggest and most influential banking corporation in the world. It is also the largest Chinese bank in the world in terms of total assets under management. The total revenue for ICBC in the financial year 2019 was

$124.5 billion and its net income was $41.3 billion. ICBC is also considered to be a systematically important bank by the Financial Stability Board.



The sixth largest Chinese company in the world is China Life Insurance Co Ltd. This is the second largest insurer in China right after Ping An Group. The company offers a range of group health, life, and accident insurance products. The company is large state owned with nearly 70% of the shares owned by the China Life Insurance Group. The total revenue for China Life Insurance in 2019 was $111.1 billion and its net income was $7.2 billion.



The seventh largest Chinese company in the world also comes from the banking sector and it is the China Construction Bank Corp. China Construction Bank is the second largest Chinese commercial bank internationally and it was ranked as the second largest bank in the world in 2015 by market capitalisation. It also ranked the 6th largest corporation in the world in that year respectively. China Construction Bank is a commercial bank that is focusing on serving individuals, businesses and also public companies. The total revenue for China Construction Bank in 2019 was $105.2 billion and its net income was $35.3 billion.



The eighth largest Chinese company in the world is CITIC Ltd. The company is mainly engaged in financial services, resources and energy, manufacturing, real estates and many other areas respectively. The company’s shares are listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. In the financial year 2019, CITIC’s total revenue was $91.7 billion and its net income was $6.1 billion. The company’s headquarter is now based in the China Zun building in Beijing, the building itself is now the tallest building in Beijing.




The ninth largest Chinese company in the world is Alibaba Group which is the only private owned enterprise on the lists. Alibaba was founded by the famous Chinese entrepreneur Jack Ma in 1999. Alibaba provides consumer-to-consumer, business-to-consumer, business-to-business sales services via web portal. The famous Chinese e-commerce websites such as Taobao and Tmall are all companies under Alibaba. In 2014, Alibaba’s initial public offering(IPO) on New York Stock Exchange raised US$25 billion, making its IPO the then largest in the history. The group’s total revenue in 2019 was $83.4 billion and its net income was $18.7 billion. The company’s headquarter is based in Hangzhou, China.



The tenth largest Chinese company in the world is Bank of China Ltd. Bank of China is considered to be one of the “four big banks” in China alongside ICBC, China Construction Bank and China Farmers’ Bank. Bank of China provides loans, deposits, foreign currency transactions, fund settlement services and related banking products and services. It is considered to be the fourth largest banks in the world in terms of total assets. Bank of China’s total revenue in 2019 was $80.1 billion and its net income was $24.8 billion.

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