China’s technological advances and industrial strengths, combined with its market-opening efforts, represent “China Opportunity 2.0” for global businesses, Chinese experts and executives said, pushing back against the revived “China Shock 2.0” narrative in some Western circles. In a world grappling with rising protectionism and geopolitical tensions, innovation-driven cooperation is essential for global growth, and “China Opportunity 2.0” offers broader access to advanced technologies and testing grounds for businesses to stay ahead of the curve, they said. The so-called “China Shock 2.0” narrative, which frames China’s progress in such sectors as new energy and biopharmaceuticals as a threat, is nothing more than “recycled protectionist rhetoric dressed up in new clothes”, Tu Xinquan, Dean of the China Institute for WTO Studies at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, told China Daily.
Tu noted that, since the Industrial Revolution, every major technological upheaval has triggered anxiety among major players of “being overtaken”, from British machines displacing Indian handlooms, to the United States auto industry’s rise over Europe, to Japanese automakers’ shock to Detroit. “Some Western companies that lost ground have not paused to reflect on their own deficiencies in innovation or cost control,” Tu said. “Instead, they point fingers at China for moving too fast – a logic that is as self-serving as it is flawed.”
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China devoted nearly CNY4 trillion to research and development (R&D) last year, accounting for more than 2.8% of GDP, more than the average of OECD countries. With innovation driven by artificial intelligence (AI) now critical to global competitiveness, Nobel laureate Michael Spence observed that Beijing’s systematic approach to AI deployment gives China a distinct edge over the West. “China has, in my view, in the context of the 15th Five Year Plan (2026-30), a better set of either plans or intentions to make sure that AI is deployed by and adopted across a wide range of the economy, both in manufacturing and services,” he said.
The dividends are already visible, as multinational companies are increasingly leveraging China’s innovation ecosystem to enhance their own global competitiveness. “We are not in China simply to serve the local market,” said Pascal Daloz, Chairman and CEO of French industrial software company Dassault Systèmes. “We are here because China has become one of the places where innovation is moving fastest. For global companies, being part of this ecosystem is becoming essential to staying competitive over the long term,” he added.
Rogier Janssens, President of Merck China, described China’s “2.0 version” of opening-up as “not just about enabling multinational companies to access the Chinese market, but empowering them to collaborate in innovation”. Joe Ngai, Chairman of McKinsey Greater China, said, “In many areas of industrial development, especially in high-tech manufacturing, in clean energy, in the usage of AI and robotics, I think Chinese industry is indisputably at the leading edge of global development. This is a gym where everyone competes against everyone else,” he added, as reported by the China Daily.
