Li Dongsheng, the founder and chairman of Chinese consumer electronics maker TCL Technology Group Corp, has called on China’s manufacturers to shift from exporting products to exporting industrial capacities, ramp up localized operations abroad, and avoid trade barriers as part of a broader push to expand their footprint overseas. As a deputy to the 14th National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, Li stressed the importance of technological innovation and capital investment in bolstering the development of high-tech manufacturing, which he said has become an important driving force for China’s high-quality development. In his proposal to this year’s two sessions, he called for efforts to step up support for high-tech manufacturing enterprises in research and development input, improve the financing environment, lower production costs, and alleviate existing burdens on enterprises.
Li acknowledged the challenges that Chinese manufacturing enterprises still face, such as trade frictions, compliance management, and patent lawsuits in the process of going global, and suggested that the country should offer support for Chinese enterprises that have expanded their presence overseas in aspects of legal aid, policy advisory, patent litigation services, and cross-border investments.
According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China accounted for nearly 30 percent of the global manufacturing output in 2021, up from 22.5 percent in 2012, and maintained its title as the world’s largest manufacturing country. TCL is accelerating steps to strengthen its capacity in global operations, with a focus on three core business segments covering intelligent terminals, semiconductor displays, and new energy photovoltaics. Li said that TCL is improving its localized production and operations, and plans to strengthen its global layout in industrial chains, marketing, and R&D in the future.
Jie Meijuan, the general manager of the consumer electronics department at Beijing-based market consultancy All View Cloud or AVC, said that it is an irreversible trend for Chinese consumer electronics and home appliance makers to step up their operations in the global market to improve competitiveness and foster a new growth engine for their longer-term development. Enhancing global operational capacity will help Chinese high-tech manufacturing enterprises better utilize global resources and promote the upgrade of China’s manufacturing, she added.