Editor's Note: As China launches its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30), policymakers are strengthening coordination between the "Export to China" and "Shopping in China" campaigns. The effort signals a clear commitment to expanding imports while promoting high-quality consumption. To explore what this means for global business, we invited executives from multinational corporations to share their perspectives on the opportunities in China's vast market, the role of their China operations in global strategy, and their outlook for the years ahead.

Q1 China's GDP grew 5 percent in 2025, reaching 140.19 trillion yuan ($20.28 trillion). For 2026, the government targets growth of between 4.5 percent and 5 percent, with a planned deficit ratio of around 4 percent. How do you assess the credibility and policies backing this target? Amid moderating global demand, what does China's relative growth certainty mean for your company's global capital allocation, earnings outlook and investor expectations? Does the combination of proactive fiscal policies and accommodative monetary measures reinforce your confidence in sustaining or expanding operations in China?

Cui: We maintain long-term confidence in China's economic prospects. Despite the challenging global environment, we remain confident in the systemic resilience of China's economy and we believe that the structural dividends of the Chinese market's long-term development will continue to be unleashed and benefit the world.

We will remain steadfast in practicing our "In China, for China" strategy: focusing on industrial upgrading opportunities in sectors like new energy and advanced materials during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), and deeply participating in the construction of a modern industrial system. At the same time, we will share China-validated solutions with the rest of the world through our global R&D network.

Zhang: China's growth target of 4.5 percent to 5 percent for 2026 reflects a balanced and pragmatic policy approach, especially in the context of moderating global demand and a complex geopolitical environment. The resilience of the Chinese economy stems not only from stable macroeconomic policy support, but also from ongoing industrial upgrading and innovation-driven development.

From a corporate perspective, China's stable growth trajectory and clear commitment to industrial transformation provide long-term certainty for multinational companies. For Dassault Systemes, China is not only an important market, but also a key part of the global innovation ecosystem.

Zhao: China's latest GDP growth target is firmly anchored in high-quality development. It's well above the global average despite a complex external environment. Looking ahead, this target provides us a consistent and predictable landscape for our mid and long-term planning in China.

In the coming five years, the government has planned over 100 major projects, including those related to new type energy systems, and green transition. This brings encouraging opportunities for Hitachi Energy. As a global technology leader, Hitachi Energy has been injecting a $9 billion investment plan since 2020 globally. We are now expanding our manufacturing bases in China and enhancing supply chain resilience to better support the low-carbon goals.

Dewoon: The strategy of our company in China is real customer value creation and sustainability — which is in accordance with the objectives of China's 15th Five-Year Plan.

By investing in China, our commitment is to contribute to an upgrading of the whole transport system. We bring to China over 130 years of experience, of the logic of growth with efficiency, reliability and sustainability combined, and here with integrating Chinese technical features and unique innovations into the transport and service solutions we offer in China.

The industrial hub in Rugao, Jiangsu province, including a strong R&D team, ensures efficiency and agility to adapt to China and to the famous "China speed". Every day our roots shoot ever deeper, making us an integral part of the Chinese commercial vehicles and transport industry.

Q2 In 2025, China's exports rose 6.1 percent, newly established foreign-invested enterprises increased by 19.1 percent, and R&D intensity reached 2.8 percent of GDP. Against the backdrop of global supply chain reconfiguration, is China's role in your global strategy expanding? How do you evaluate China's integrated advantages — manufacturing depth, innovation capacity, infrastructure and market scale — in supporting your production networks and supply resilience? Does China function primarily as a market, a production base, an innovation hub, or increasingly all three within your corporate architecture?

Cui: As a pioneer in industrial software innovation, we are well aware of the vast opportunities and development momentum in the Chinese market, and we are fortunate to achieve both business growth and technological advancement in this dynamic market. Participating in and empowering the digital and intelligent transformation of China's industry, we adhere to long-termism and continue to increase our investment in local R&D, talent and ecosystem development.

Aveva deeply understands that taking root in the Chinese market must be built upon robust local innovation.

Looking ahead, we will continue to advance the development of our localized R&D, innovation and delivery capabilities.

Zhang: Against the backdrop of global supply chain reconfiguration, China's importance in Dassault Systemes' global strategy continues to grow. China possesses one of the most comprehensive industrial systems in the world, supported by strong engineering capabilities, advanced infrastructure and an increasingly dynamic innovation ecosystem. Within Dassault Systemes' global architecture, China functions simultaneously as a key consumer market, a high-value R&D hub and a vital node connecting global supply chains and innovation networks.

Looking ahead, we aim to deepen collaboration with Chinese enterprises, research institutions and ecosystem partners, positioning China as a key environment for industrial AI innovation.

Zhao: China has always been one of the most important markets for Hitachi Energy. Driven by an unprecedented growth of electrification across industries, and an increasing amount of renewables' integration into the power system, the grid is now facing urgent demand for capacity expansion and upgrading, amid its fundamental security role as mission critical infrastructure. China has been leading the world in grid planning and operation, and boasts an advanced power equipment manufacturing industry.

As a global technology leader, we are well positioned to support China's new power system and co-innovating with local customers, while serving an expanding overseas market to meet their rising energy demand.

Dewoon: The Chinese market is of strategic importance to Scania and Traton Group. Scania invested 2 billion euros ($2.31 billion) to build its third global industrial hub in Rugao, Jiangsu province. China is the largest and most competitive truck market in the world, and we are here "In China, with China".

Success in working with Chinese supply chains lies in combining global sourcing capabilities with a high level of localization, leveraging the best of both worlds.

The company remains committed to working alongside local partners to advance sustainable transport solutions and drive the green transformation of industry, in China and beyond.

From our Rugao industrial hub we produce for both China and export markets, primarily in Asia and beyond, enabling us to catch growth opportunities in the largest and fastest growing economies.

Q3 China is advancing the unified national market, with an urbanization rate of 67.9 percent and total retail sales surpassing 50 trillion yuan. As domestic demand expands, what structural opportunities does this vast, increasingly integrated market present for your portfolio, distribution channels and localization strategy? Does deeper market unification reduce operational fragmentation and compliance costs? How do you position your brand and product mix to capture demand from both top-tier cities and fast-growing lower-tier markets?

Cui: Expanding domestic demand is not solely about consumption upgrades; it fundamentally drives the upgrading of the supply system. Higher quality, greater efficiency and more resilient manufacturing and infrastructure capabilities are required to meet diversified needs. The trends toward segmented and personalized consumption are compelling the manufacturing sector to shift from mass production to agile flexible manufacturing, presenting prime opportunities for Aveva. In livelihood-related industries such as food and beverages, and pharmaceuticals, enterprises now have significantly higher requirements for production transparency and traceability.

Through production monitoring and value chain optimization, Aveva helps enterprises break down data silos and build more transparent and traceable production systems. For us, this shift will inevitably generate stronger demand for digitalization and industrial intelligence across consumer goods, life sciences and advanced manufacturing.

Zhang: China's efforts to advance a unified national market will significantly improve resource allocation efficiency and reduce regulatory fragmentation across regions. For companies operating across multiple industries and regions, such integration lowers operational complexity and enables innovative technologies and industrial solutions to scale more efficiently nationwide. For a company like Dassault Systemes, which supports digital transformation across many sectors, a more integrated market environment further unlocks the innovation potential of China's vast economy.

From our perspective, China's unified national market represents not only a vast consumption base, but also a powerful environment for industrial innovation. The scale and diversity of China's economy provide ideal conditions for technologies such as industrial AI and virtual twins to be deployed at scale, accelerating digital transformation and supporting the country's high-quality industrial development. That's why we added "From China" to our strategy, which is now "In China, For China, With China, From China".

Dewoon: The Chinese truck market is not only large in scale, but also highly diverse in terms of customer needs and application scenarios, which gives us opportunities to enlarge our product and service portfolio. Scania Group is addressing the market through a complementary dual offering strategy.

First, with the global standard premium Scania, we can offer tailored tractors and chassis to meet customers' needs requiring higher performance, life length and specialized applications. The timing is excellent since the transformation that China's society is undergoing will require more and more demanding heavy transport solutions as well as mobile services to cater to the needs of a modern urban environment. Second, we have developed a product range for China's long-haul transport volume segment, where there is high demand for general purpose efficient tractor units. The Next Era tractor range is specifically designed for this segment.

Q4 China's trade-in program generated over 2.6 trillion yuan in sales in 2025, alongside the "Shopping in China" and "Export to China" initiatives. China's exports grew 6.1 percent year-on-year. How is your company aligning its China strategy to capture both domestic consumption upgrades and export-oriented opportunities? Do you see China increasingly as a global production and innovation base serving international markets? How are you balancing local demand expansion with China's role in your global export ecosystem?

Cui: As we step into the 15th Five-Year Plan, foreign enterprises should adopt a "long-term perspective" to seize China's development opportunities. We must upgrade from simply replicating global products in China to a dual-engine cooperation model driven by both domestic and international markets, focusing on joint R&D and co-building industrial ecosystems.

As an established industrial software company with nearly 60 years of history, Aveva is committed to helping enterprises strengthen their supply-side capabilities. By leveraging digitalization and industrial intelligence to enhance efficiency, quality and sustainability, we are actively stepping into the arena to accelerate the development of new quality productive forces and boost China's high-quality development.

Zhang: From Dassault Systemes' perspective, China is increasingly becoming a major source of technological innovation within global value chains.

In the automotive sector, we have established strategic partnerships with companies such as GAC Group and XPeng, enabling end-to-end digital innovation. Meanwhile, in intelligent robotics, our industrial software is enabling key capabilities such as precision dexterous manipulation, dynamic bipedal balance and AI-driven robotic intelligence.

These innovations are not only serving the Chinese market, but also increasingly influencing global industries. Through industrial AI and virtual twin technologies, Dassault Systemes aims to accelerate the global adoption of innovations developed in China — helping transform "innovation in China" into solutions that contribute to global industrial progress.

Zhao: "Made in Hitachi Energy China" has been well accepted and recognized by customers worldwide, and we are exporting to over 100 countries with significant growth every year. Energy transition and electrification are shared global priorities. Driven by the energy super cycle and global energy transition, our export volume has witnessed significant growth for the past couple of years.

On the one hand, thanks to Hitachi Energy's global footprint, we enjoy a solid market base across regions. On the other hand, with Chinese customers' strong initiative to "go global", we leverage our long-term partnerships and our international reach to support them cultivating their overseas market. We have worked with over 400 Chinese EPC companies to deliver more than 1,000 overseas projects, helping a wide range of countries and regions expand renewables and improve power systems.

Dewoon: In Scania's third global industrial hub in Rugao, we develop and manufacture trucks to global standards, contributing significantly to Scania's overall industrial capacity. From day one, the Rugao hub has been designed to serve not only the Chinese market, but also export markets across Asia and beyond.

Initially, we estimate that production will be evenly split between the domestic and export markets. At the end of the day, the market decides where the production ends up. We expect that with time the majority of the production will go to the Chinese market.

Q5 China last year reduced energy intensity by 5.1 percent, raised the nonfossil energy share to 21.7 percent, and expanded new-type energy storage capacity beyond 130 gigawatts. Artificial intelligence and advanced technologies remain at the forefront globally. Where do you see the strongest partnership potential in China's green transition and AI-driven industrial upgrading? Are you expanding investment in renewables, digitalization, smart manufacturing, or carbon management solutions? How central is China to your global sustainability roadmap and next-generation technology deployment?

Cui: China has always been a key strategic pivot for Aveva's global development because it offers definitive, long-term demand for industrial upgrading and green transformation.

We are continuously consolidating local R&D through the Aveva China Intelligence Innovation Center. Looking ahead, we will continue to closely align with the 15th Five-Year Plan, precisely allocate resources into high-growth vertical sectors and deepen local capabilities and ecosystem synergy to achieve steady development.

Aveva will continue to scale up its investments in China with a heightened focus on localized innovation. By integrating our global expertise with local market dynamics, we are committed to developing products and solutions that are precisely tailored to the needs of the Chinese market.

Zhang: For Dassault Systemes, China is both a key driver of global sustainability transformation and an important platform for industrial AI innovation.

We recently introduced our 3D UNIV+RSES strategy, which aims to build a shared industrial AI architecture for different industries through what we call an "Industrial World Model". In the context of green transformation, virtual twin technology allows companies to simulate and optimize products and systems during the design stage.

Looking ahead, we see strong opportunities for collaboration in areas including new energy system design, smart manufacturing optimization, green infrastructure and industrial AI deployment. We aim to help enterprises transition from traditional manufacturing efficiency to sustainable innovation.

Zhao: As a global technology leader in the power sector, we are supporting the global energy transition and digitalization transformation, while contributing to the development of China's new power system through our digital and low-carbon solutions.

In the green energy area, we have world-leading HVDC technologies to support the transmission of large-scale renewables over long distance; our environmentally friendly portfolios help decarbonize power systems. In AI applications, our transformers, switchgear and power-quality solutions serve computing clusters to meet fast-growing power demand. With these opportunities ahead, we are confident about deepening our development in China.

Dewoon: We are leveraging many advanced technologies to drive efficiency and innovation. In our production facility, we have deployed high portion of automated guided vehicles, automated quality checks and predictive maintenance systems. AGVs, in particular, have already improved safety, speed, quality and efficiency, while also allowing for easy scalability as production grows.

Our Rugao industrial hub, for BEV production, has been initiated. The long-haul electric heavy-duty truck market is still in its early stages and requires cost-parity. We are ready to introduce competitive products when customer demand and market conditions are ready.