European Companies Feel Pressure from Chinese Innovation

Companies doing business in China feel pressure from homegrown Chinese innovation to an increasingly large degree. While companies in the past looked towards China as a place with cheap production and labor cost, Chinese innovators are now beginning to level the playing field.

This year, 34 percent of European companies doing business in China said that the Chinese competition was more innovative, and 28 percent said they were equally innovative. According to a survey by the European Chamber of Commerce, the biggest jump occurred between 2017 and 2018, with Chinese firms improving innovation significantly.

On average, businesses also reported to feeling more welcome in China overall than when they entered the Chinese market. The biggest challenge for the future that they identified was the economic slowdown felt in China and around the world.