China Daily | Updated: 2025-06-05
Editor’s Note: As China steps up efforts to boost domestic demand and drive consumption-led growth, multinational corporations are uniquely positioned to seize the opportunities presented by this transformative period. China Daily examines how these companies are aligning with China’s new round of high-standard opening-up policies, embracing emerging tech innovation trends, and expanding their presence in a market that increasingly values high-quality development and upgraded consumption.
Q1 Driving domestic consumption is a top priority for China’s economic growth this year. With the country placing greater emphasis on consumption-led development, how is your company adapting its products, services, or localization strategies to meet evolving domestic demand and shifting consumer preferences?
AN: China is an important market for Henkel. With domestic demand prioritized at the national level, we are encouraged by the tangible measures being implemented to stimulate consumption. We remain confident in the long-term potential of the Chinese market. By deepening our investments — including the 2024 acquisition of the Vidal Sassoon brand in China and the launch of our Asia R&D center for consumer business in Shanghai with 100 million yuan ($13.9 million) — we are dedicated to meeting the diverse and evolving needs of consumers, ensuring our localized innovations resonate with their preference and lifestyles. This year, we’ve completed the acquisition of Suzhou Boke, a longstanding contract manufacturing partner of Henkel, specializing in the production of personal care products. With this acquisition, Henkel Consumer Brands significantly enhances our manufacturing capabilities in China, ensuring we are well-positioned to meet evolving market demands with greater agility and efficiency.
XU: China is one of the most important markets for the Bosch Group. Take the mobility sector as an example: China now produces more than 30 million vehicles annually, which outnumbers the total vehicles produced in Europe and the United States. This scale, coupled with the transformation toward electrified and intelligent mobility, presents significant opportunities for our largest business sector, Bosch Mobility, which accounts for roughly 80 percent of Bosch China’s business. Consumers in China are highly sophisticated and open to embrace new technologies, intelligent features, and personalized experiences. Bosch is continuing to invest in strengthening its local R&D capabilities and drive local innovations. Today, we have more than 10,000 associates working across 26 R&D centers in China. This year, many of our latest innovations will enter mass production in China. China is becoming a major innovation hub for Bosch. The innovation and experience we gain here will not only serve the Chinese market, but also be shared across our global R&D and manufacturing network and applied to other markets as demand evolves.
KOH: FedEx has been growing in tandem with the Chinese market for over 40 years. It is increasingly prominent that Chinese customers value quality, personalization and efficiency, meaning customizable, streamlined and reliable logistics solutions are more important than ever. FedEx addresses Chinese consumer and customer demand with service capabilities enhancement and continuous network expansion. Our investment in flight optimization and infrastructure development enables us to strengthen our connectivity within the China market and extend the reach of our network, providing reliable service to an increasing number of consumers and customers, including those in China’s second- and third-tier cities, enabling us to provide China customers with flexible and reliable logistics services. We diversify our service offerings and improve efficiency in key areas such as e-commerce and freight. We also provide our customers in China with various time-definite and flexible delivery options to efficiently manage their shipments online.
CUI: Driving domestic consumption is indeed a key priority for China’s economic growth, and we see this as a tremendous opportunity. As China continues to emphasize consumption-led development, we are actively adapting our strategies to align with evolving market dynamics and consumer expectations. Innovation is deeply embedded in Aveva’s DNA. We are committed to bringing cutting-edge technologies and the latest products to market. Built on Aveva’s platform, we work hand in hand with our ecosystem partners to deliver tailored, differentiated solutions that address the unique needs of diverse industries and scenarios. We were among the first to introduce the concept of “Industrial Intelligence”, using data to empower AI and advance the deep integration of artificial intelligence into industrial applications. As one of the most promising markets for AI adoption globally, China offers fertile ground for us to cultivate the future of Industrial Intelligence.
Q2 “China Travel” and “Shopping in China” have become buzzwords among international visitors, fueled by China’s unilateral visa-free policies for multiple countries and a new initiative allowing eligible travelers to receive instant tax refunds. How is your business planning to innovate and capture the momentum from this trend? Additionally, how do you view emerging opportunities in areas such as green technology, the low-altitude economy, smart manufacturing, and experiential services?
AN: Over the past 50 years, Henkel has witnessed and actively participated in China’s economic growth, benefiting from the country’s ongoing opening-up and continuous improvements in the business environment. By consistently investing in local innovation and production capabilities, we deliver customized solutions that help accelerate the development of emerging industries such as the field of green technologies to drive sustainability. At Henkel, we’ve further anchored sustainability in our business strategy. Our commitment toward a sustainable future aligns closely with China’s green transformation goals. For example, Henkel is setting new standards for more sustainable packaging with adhesive innovations. Our new hot melt adhesive, which is used for food packaging and other applications, consists of at least 49 percent bio-based raw materials and requires significantly less energy during application. We will further strengthen our sustainability efforts, deepen collaboration with partners, and pursue innovative solutions to support market needs and contribute to a greener future.
XU: We appreciate China’s approach to liberalizing its visa policy. It is significantly helping enhance global exchanges, facilitate mutual understanding, and foster stronger partnerships. Hassle-free cross-border exchanges and collaboration are essential — it not only helps us better serve local customers in China, but also support their business expansion into overseas markets. China is prioritizing high-quality development, with a strong focus on innovation, sustainability, and balancing economic growth with social responsibility. Bosch is actively integrating green and smart manufacturing technologies into its operations across China, contributing to the country’s industrial transformation and high-quality development. Eleven manufacturing sites of Bosch in China have been recognized as national green factories. To further our commitment to sustainability, Bosch has set a new target this year, which aims to reduce upstream and downstream emissions by 30 percent (compared to 2018) in absolute terms by 2030, regardless of the company’s growth. This includes carbon emissions generated by our suppliers, logistics and the use of our products.
KOH: The buzzwords highlight that Chinese products are increasingly favored worldwide. This growing global preference underscores the importance of environmental stewardship as a universal business imperative, as international consumers increasingly consider sustainability in their purchasing decisions. FedEx is expanding sustainability efforts in China to reduce emissions from our operations, emphasizing sustainable facilities, electric vehicles, paperless shipping and sustainable solutions, supporting us to work our way toward delivering a more sustainable future with a goal of carbon neutral operations by 2040. As customers look to us to help them reduce their carbon footprint within their supply chains, we have developed data-driven tools to give them visibility into the CO2 emissions their shipping choices create.
CUI: Over 90 percent of the world’s leading industrial companies rely on our solutions to help deliver life’s essentials — safe and reliable energy, food, medicine, and infrastructure. In areas closely tied to people’s well-being — such as green mobility, intelligent rail transit, water resource management, and food and beverage oversight — Aveva is empowering enterprises to move from “operational” to “optimized” performance through platform-based solutions, digital twins, and AI-driven capabilities. The result is a safer, more comfortable living and travel experience. Riding the wave of industrial momentum driven by China’s booming travel and consumption, and as an integral part of the Chinese economy and society, Aveva remains in sync with local customers. We are accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation across industrial sectors and advancing intelligent manufacturing.
Q3 AI and digitalization are rapidly transforming industries across the globe. How are your China operations incorporating these technologies to boost efficiency, improve customer experiences, or unlock new revenue streams in light of the country’s push for “new quality productive forces”?
AN: Over the years, China has firmly established itself as one of the global leaders in cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence. At Henkel, AI has been an integral part of our digital strategy. We leverage it across process automation, adhesive development laboratory, globally connected production sites, and autonomous manufacturing robots — enhancing both innovation and operational efficiency with “China Speed”.
XU: China is at the front of AI and digitalization — they are key enablers of the country’s efforts to develop new quality productive forces. With a strong local presence, Bosch leverages China’s talent base, supply chain and innovation ecosystem to deliver meaningful and market-ready innovations. In intelligent mobility, Bosch’s ADAS product family, supporting urban assisted driving up to L2, is now integrating end-to-end and vision language models to enable a smoother and more human-like driving experience. In the home appliance business, Bosch’s new accentline built-in steam oven features an AI camera with a built-in 5 megapixel, high-temperature-resistant camera that identifies ingredients and, via home connect AI cloud, recommends optimal cooking solutions. AI is also transforming engineering processes at Bosch. In product design and optimization, AI allows engineers to generate and evaluate up to 20,000 design variants in just 30 minutes — tasks that once took months for simulations or physical tests. Local partnership plays a critical role here. Last year, we extended our collaboration with Tsinghua University on AI research. Building on the foundation of the Tsinghua-Bosch Joint Research Center, this partnership aims to advance the application of AI in the industrial sector.
KOH: The rise of new quality productive forces, driven by AI and digitalization, has shifted logistics from focusing on scale and speed to prioritizing quality and efficiency. Innovation is in FedEx’s DNA. Leveraging the power of technology, FedEx is working to make supply chains smarter for everyone.
With a longstanding history of investing in and adopting emerging technologies in China, FedEx continues to apply the latest digital tools to improve service quality for our Chinese customers. This year alone, we launched the Collaborative Shipping Tool and Picture Proof of Delivery in China to enhance customer experience through digital transformation. FedEx also uses data and AI to improve our operational efficiency and enable an agile and resilient supply chain for our Chinese customers. For example, we’ve deployed automated guided forklifts and AI-driven sorting robots in China. These digital technologies provide enhanced logistics services to our Chinese customers.
CUI: At Aveva, we see innovation not only as a strategic priority, but also as part of our DNA. We are proud to work together with our ecosystem partners to seize the historic opportunity brought by China’s accelerated push for new quality productive forces.
China demonstrates exceptional vitality in innovation, with rich industrial application scenarios, a complete supply chain ecosystem, and a highly open and supportive technology environment.
That’s why Aveva is continuously increasing our investment in the Chinese market — especially in R&D — as we deepen our roots in this dynamic landscape and co-create a smarter, more sustainable industrial future together. In the era of digital economy, data have become a fundamental element for building new quality productive forces. Industries such as energy, chemicals, power, and discrete manufacturing face shared challenges: lack of transparency, extended value chains, environmental pressures, and high safety demands.
Industrial Intelligence has been one of our key strategic focus areas in recent years, reflecting our vision for AI-powered industry. At Aveva, we believe AI should augment human intelligence — not replace it. However, the industrial sector’s extremely low tolerance for error demands highly accurate outcomes, achievable only through training AI with vast volumes of real-world data. That’s why we are working closely with Chinese customers to embed AI into real industrial workflows.
Q4 China is stepping up efforts to promote high-end manufacturing, the digital economy, and upgraded services. In this context, is your company planning to increase investments, establish new partnerships, or expand R&D capabilities in China? What are the core objectives of your long-term strategy in the Chinese market?
AN: We recognize China’s strong commitment to new quality productive forces, and Henkel has greatly benefited from the rapid growth of key sectors such as automotive, consumer goods, and electronics. As a result, we have continuously strengthened our presence in China, increasing investments in innovation, production, and supply chains to enhance our end-to-end capabilities.
In May, we opened a new Application Engineering Center in Shanghai to drive rapid technological advancement. The center will accelerate innovation and transformation across key industries such as new energy vehicles, rail transit, aviation and metal packaging. Moreover, our world’s second-largest Inspiration Center for Adhesive Technologies is set to launch this year, which will further enable us to accelerate the speed and depth of our innovations in China for China and the broader Asia-Pacific region. Looking ahead, we will continue to invest in innovation and sustainability, deepen collaboration with local partners, and explore cutting-edge solutions to meet evolving market demands — contributing to long-term, high-quality growth.
XU: China is shifting from high-speed growth to high-quality development. Bosch remains firmly committed to the Chinese market, focusing on promising growth areas such as new energy vehicles, smart mobility, hydrogen, software, and artificial intelligence. In support of this, Bosch invested 11.9 billion yuan in R&D in China in 2024 alone. Over the past decade, our total investment in the country has exceeded 60 billion yuan.
To better serve customers in this dynamic market, Bosch continues to enhance its local manufacturing and R&D capabilities. Earlier this year, Bosch also established a joint venture with Jiangling Motors Corporation Group in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, to develop and manufacture eAxle systems for light-duty commercial vehicles.
We are also actively working with local partners to deliver solutions tailored to the Chinese market. A recent example is Bosch’s collaboration with Horizon Robotics in the field of intelligent mobility. Bosch will develop and produce a new multi-purpose camera and ADAS product family for the midrange segment, based on the Journey 6 series chips of Horizon Robotics.
KOH: FedEx considers China as an important market in our global strategy. As China drives economic growth through improvements in high-end manufacturing, the digital economy and upgraded services, FedEx is confident in the market’s potential and will continue to connect our Chinese customers with the global market.
We will further expand and enhance our logistics network across China by investing in infrastructure, providing customized solutions, and extending our reach to second- and third-tier cities.
We will harness innovative technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence to develop sustainable and smart logistics solutions, while empowering the high-quality upgrade of the logistics sector and making supply chains smarter for everyone.
In the meantime, FedEx will continue to pioneer in sustainable logistics, creating opportunities and positive impacts for our customers in the Chinese market, while growing its business and striving to achieve carbon neutrality and sustainable development.
CUI: At Aveva, we remain deeply committed to the Chinese market and firmly believe in long-term development here. Guided by our “In China, For China” strategy, we continue to strengthen our local R&D capabilities and business footprint to better serve the evolving needs of Chinese industries.
Recently, one of our legal entities in China — Telvent — was officially recognized as a Beijing foreign-funded R&D center. This recognition is a strong endorsement of our ongoing innovation and breakthroughs in the industrial software space.
As China continues to advance high-level opening-up and high-quality development, foreign-funded R&D centers are becoming a key pillar of multinational companies’ localization strategies. Aveva will continue to increase investment in China, leverage local strengths, and drive industrial transformation through technological innovation.