The number of Chinese companies, including those from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and the island of Taiwan, stood at 143 on the Fortune Global 500 list for 2021, making China No 1 on the list for a second consecutive year, the Global Times reports. The Chinese mainland and Hong Kong SAR have a total of 135, up by 11 from last year. The U.S. is up one with 122, and Japan held steady with a total of 53. The Fortune Global 500 is an annual ranking of the top 500 enterprises worldwide as measured by business revenue. Last year, the number of Chinese companies stood at 133, the first time China's number surpassed that of the U.S. China's State Grid Co climbed to the second position on the Fortune Global 500 list for 2021, while Huawei ranked 44th, up from 49th in the previous year, despite U.S. government sanctions on the company. Walmart claimed the top spot for the eighth consecutive year and the 16th time since 1995.
There are a total of 45 new and re-listed companies in the Fortune Global 500 ranking this year, of which 18 are new and re-listed Chinese companies, including China State Shipbuilding Corp, Zhejiang Rongsheng Holding Group, Zhejiang Hengyi Group, and Sunac China Holdings Co. Seven internet-related companies are on the list this year, including Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook of the U.S., along with China's JD.com, Alibaba Group, Tencent Holdings Co and Xiaomi Group. The rankings of internet companies generally improved, compared with last year. The largest increase in the rankings was for Xiaomi Group, which rose by 84 places.
Although the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 caused difficulties in business operations, the average revenue and profit of Chinese companies on the list were basically unchanged from 2019. The average profit of 135 Chinese mainland companies (including Hong Kong) on the list was about USD3.54 billion. Overall, the operating income of the world's top 500 companies on the list was about USD31.7 trillion, down 5% from last year, and the total net profit was USD1.6 trillion, down 20% year-on-year, the biggest drop since 2009. Apple netted USD57 billion in profits, and is the Fortune Global 500's most profitable company, the Global Times reports.
