For decades, global boardrooms interpreted China through a single lens: unstoppable growth. Yet the past decade reveals something more consequential than simple expansion. Between 2015 and 2025, China underwent a fundamental transformation – shifting economic engines from labor arbitrage to real estate to electric vehicles – evolving from fast-follower to deep-tech competitor.
The apparent contradiction between macro headwinds and surging competitive intensity has created genuine ambiguity for multinational executives. GDP growth has moderated, yet R&D investment accelerated through the pandemic, exceeding $500 billion by 2024. Property markets contracted, yet BYD tripled its engineering workforce to over 121,000 researchers. This is not decline – it is metamorphosis.
My analysis of China’s strategic shifts with Yunfei Feng shows the country now encompasses in one market what companies will face sequentially elsewhere: tougher regulation, more capable local competitors, and less tolerance for strategic ambiguity. China has become a pressure-testing system for multinational companies, exposing whether operating models remain resilient enough for a more demanding global era.
To mark Chinese New Year, I by IMD explores how these transformations are reshaping competitive dynamics across multiple dimensions, including:
Innovation: Mark Greeven dismantles five persistent myths about Chinese innovation, while Howard Yu and Jialu Shan examine how disciplined sequential learning and vertical integration have helped BYD race past Tesla.
Geopolitics: Simon J. Evenett decodes China’s primacy challenge to the US dominance.
Luxury: Stéphane J. Girod charts the evolution of the market and how emerging Chinese brands are redefining competition.
Talent: Zhike Lei traces the human cost of China’s “Juan” labor evolution uncovering critical lessons for how multinational corporations can design more sustainable practices.
Explore the articles below to understand how China’s transformation is rewriting the rules of competition for global leaders.
As debate grows over whether China is winning the technology race, executives should focus instead on how its innovation system is designed – and what that means for competition.
BYD overtook Tesla’s EV annual market share in 2025 as it mastered unglamorous fundamentals and built capabilities sequentially while competitors chased disruption and moonshots.
Some of China’s most profitable companies have thrived by piling pressure on workers – sometimes with tragic results. Zhike Lei outlines how multinationals can design work that avoids burnout and exploitation.
The next decade will bring significant changes for China’s luxury sector. But to see where it’s heading, we need to understand where it’s been.
The great-power rivalry between China and the US is structural, not an aberration: zero-sum thinking, tech rivalry, and weaponized trade will outlast leaders and reshape business.
China’s economy shows contradictory signals – macro headwinds yet surging innovation investment and competitive intensity. To decode this evolving reality, here are the nine key trends global businesses must understand about operating in today’s China.
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