McKinsey: China is the 'toughest gym in the world'
2026-06-29
With increasing global market uncertainty and supply chain restructuring, many multinational corporations are seeking alternative manufacturing and consumer markets, attempting to find the 'next China'. However, in a recent interview with Fortune magazine, Ni Yili, Chairman of McKinsey China, said, "You hear all kinds of voices. We are trying to diversify risks from China. We are trying to reduce our dependence on China. But you cannot find another China. There is no second China in the world today." Ni Yili also described China as the "toughest gym in the world," where highly competitive enterprises are honed.
This statement does not negate the development potential of other economies, but rather refers to the fact that no country can perfectly replicate China's comprehensive advantages in industry, market, and innovation on a global scale. In the future, China will still be a necessary choice among the main markets for global growth, industrial innovation, and investment opportunities.
After decades of development, China has built the world's most complete industrial system, forming a full chain supporting system from raw materials, core components to end products. In the new round of global "lighthouse factory network" list recently released by the World Economic Forum, 16 new companies, half of which are from China. Guangdong and Shenzhen have completed the transformation from world factories to global industrial standard setting. Compared to other emerging markets, China's industrial chain is better able to achieve efficient closed-loop production and undertake high-end manufacturing. Relying on this mature innovation ecosystem, China's innovation speed and scale advantages are unparalleled in the four high growth and high return tracks of artificial intelligence infrastructure, electrification, intelligent hardware, and generalized digitization selected by McKinsey.
The advantage of a super large market and a healthy competitive environment forge a continuous and iterative innovation vitality. The view that the Chinese market is the "toughest gym in the world" is increasingly recognized by multinational corporations. Consumers have a high acceptance of new products and technologies, which forces companies to continuously iterate and optimize their products. In the past, foreign brands could easily make profits by relying on product premiums. Nowadays, local companies such as Huawei, BYD, and miHoYo are rapidly rising, forcing multinational corporations to implement localization strategies of "in China, for China" and deeply integrate into local supply chains. Intense market competition selects companies with global competitiveness, and brands tempered by the domestic market naturally have stronger resilience when going global. This is also an important reason why Chinese products can maintain high quality and competitive prices in overseas markets.
The scale dividend and regional cooperation potential open up long-term growth space. China has an irreplaceable advantage in scale and large market, which enables it to undertake more strategic innovative research and development; At the same time, it can serve as an ecological aggregator and establish a regional division of labor system. Faced with a completely new landscape, the development logic of multinational corporations has been rewritten. Only by adhering to the principle of "in China, for China", deeply cultivating the local market, integrating into the local industrial ecology, and working together with partners to innovate, can we adapt to the pace of the Chinese market, establish a solid development foothold, and form a good ecology of win-win for all parties.
The Chinese economy has strong resilience, abundant innovation momentum, and a stable industrial base, possessing the triple value of manufacturing, consumption, and innovation. The real growth opportunities are always rooted in the continuously upgrading Chinese market. (Outlook New Era)
Edit:Luoyu Responsible editor:Zhoushu
Source:People's Daily
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