Chinese companies high on Fortune 500 list

Chinese companies showed strengthened competitiveness in 2020 with the Fortune Global 500 list again seeing more of them included in the ranking than any other countries.

A total of 133 Chinese companies, including those based on the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, were ranked as the Fortune Global 500 enterprises, according to the list released on Monday.

In comparison, on the list were 121 companies from the United States, 53 from Japan, 31 from France, 27 from Germany and 22 from the United Kingdom.

US-headquartered Walmart once again topped the list, and it was followed by three Chinese companies — Sinopec Group, State Grid and China National Petroleum.

The top 10 also included Royal Dutch Shell, Saudi Aramco, Volkswagen, BP, Amazon.com and Toyota Motor.

It was the second year for Chinese companies to exhibit top-ranking strength after 129 Chinese companies were listed in 2019, compared with 121 US companies.

“It’s hard to overstate the significance of the change in the global economy that represents,” said Cliff Lead, Fortune’s editor-in-chief.

“When the Global 500 list first came out in 1990, there were no Chinese companies on the list. In the intervening three decades, the Chinese economy has skyrocketed, powered by a global trade boom that expanded from 39 percent of global GDP to 59 percent.”

The Fortune Global 500 list is calculated mainly on corporate revenue. It said the world’s 500 largest companies generated US$33.3 trillion in revenue and US$2.1 trillion in profit in 2019.

This year’s Fortune Global 500 companies employ 69.9 million people worldwide and are represented by 32 countries.