In terms of numbers, there are now more Chinese firms than American companies listed in the "2019 Fortune Global 500" list of the world's largest publicly listed companies ranked by revenue.
Fortune said the big story in its 2019 ranking is that, for the first time, there are more Fortune Global 500 companies based in mainland China and Hong Kong than in the United States. It said there are 124 mainland China and Hong Kong-based firms in the rankings, compared with 121 U.S. firms. Adding companies from Taiwan boosts the Greater China total to 133. The number of mainland Chinese companies in the 2019 Fortune Global 500 nearly doubled to 124 from 69 in 2011.
Fortune Editor-in-Chief Cliff Leaf noted that when the Global 500 first came out in 1990, there were no Chinese companies on the list at all. Greater China's domination of the 2019 edition is, therefore, of huge significance as it reflects the immense economic strides made by China over the past three decades. Leaf said the Chinese economy has skyrocketed, and now accounts for 59% of global GDP, from 39%.
"The quickly expanding number of Chinese firms reflects China's growing economic significance and its engagement in global business," said Lei Xinjun, an associate research fellow specializing in international trading and investment at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences' Institute of Economics.
Many of the mainland China-based firms, however, are state-owned monopolies propped-up by financial and fiscal support from the communist government in Beijing.
China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec;) State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) are ranked second, third and fourth on the 2019 Fortune Global 500, respectively.
Sinopec is the world's largest oil refining, gas and petrochemical conglomerate. SGCC is the world's largest utility company, and the world's fifth largest company overall by revenue in 2019. CNPC is one of the largest integrated energy groups in the world.
In contrast, none of the American firms on the list are state-owned.
There are, however, two privately owned mainland China firms in the list's top 50: Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, which rose eight spots to reach 21st place, and Huawei Investment & Holding, which rose 12 places to 49th.
Huawei Technologies Co., now the world's top smartphone brand, is the only Chinese manufacturing company in the top 50. All the others are either financial institutions or resource-related enterprises.
The "Big Four" state-owned banks are all in the top 50. These are Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (24th), China Construction Bank (30th), Agricultural Bank of China (35th) and Bank of China (43rd).
"While we are pleased to see more Chinese corporations get listed in the Fortune 500, we should also be conscious that the majority of them are State-owned, and they expanded to their current size through a series of mergers and acquisitions," said Su Yong, a professor of business management at Fudan University's School of Management in Shanghai.
"We would love to see the emergence of competitive private firms, technology companies and corporations with global competitiveness in the list in the future," noted Su. "Chinese companies with such vitality can be representative of the nation's comprehensive strength."
Number One on the 2019 Fortune Global 500 is American retail giant Walmart Inc. Walmart remains the world's largest company by revenue, with $514.405 billion in 2019, according to the Fortune Global 500. The Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) remains the world's most profitable company in 2019 despite net income falling to $88.2 billion, compared with $111.1 billion in 2018.
The world's 500 largest companies generated combined revenues of $33.3 trillion and a net income of $2.1 trillion in 2019.
