As China’s firms go global, foreign expertise is becoming a hot commodity



With domestic profits narrowing and production capacity expanding, China’s firms are continuing to widen their overseas footprints in search of new, more lucrative markets. In this series, we examine China Inc.’s next phase of “going global” and the complex, challenging international environment its companies have chosen to enter.

It is the middle of the night in Dongguan, one of China’s biggest export hubs, but Peng Biao is still editing videos.

In the footage, a factory owner from the city steps off a plane and greets a Bangladeshi client, before launching into a discussion about the purpose of his trip in slightly hesitant English.

The camera is a bit shaky, but Peng says that gives the scene a more authentic feel. Minutes later, she will upload the video to Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, with artificial intelligence automatically generating English voice-overs and subtitles.

Peng has found a lucrative niche over the past few years helping companies in China’s southern factory belt expand their overseas client bases. Her studio now works with more than a dozen firms in the region, filming videos for them, managing their overseas social media accounts and connecting them with international influencers.

Her business is part of a broader shift quietly unfolding across China’s manufacturing heartlands. With Chinese producers facing slowing growth and intense competition at home, many are seeking to ramp up their overseas sales – and that is creating a huge amount of work for a range of contractors.
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