China releases list of top 500 manufacturing firms for 2025

China

China releases list of top 500 manufacturing firms for 2025

2025-09-21 13:41 Last Updated At：09-22 00:07

The list of 2025 China's Top 500 Manufacturing Enterprises was released Saturday at the World Manufacturing Convention in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province.

Jointly issued by the China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) and the China Enterprise Directors Association (CEDA), the ranking has been published for 21 years in a row, highlighting the consistent progress of China's manufacturing sector.

Based on companies' operating revenue, the list shows that the threshold for entry rose from 11.09 billion yuan (about 1.56 billion U.S. dollars) at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020) to 17.37 billion yuan in 2024. Meanwhile, the combined operating revenue of the top 500 companies increased from 40.24 trillion yuan to 51.68 trillion yuan.

The resilience of manufacturing enterprises in export activities has steadily improved, with the share of their overseas revenue increasing to 19.10 percent, showcasing the global competitiveness of China's manufacturing.

According to the list, promoting innovation-driven development has become a hallmark of the top 500 enterprises. Their research and development spending intensity rose to 2.45 percent, with more than 1.66 million effective patents, nearly half of which were invention patents.

Sectors including manufacturing of communications equipment, computers, and office devices recorded average revenue growth of over 10 percent, while the semiconductor, integrated circuit, and panel manufacturing industries saw average profit growth of more than 100 percent.

"Innovation-oriented enterprises stand out in the ranking. Through continuous technological research and development and business model innovation, they have become an important driving force of new quality productive forces," said Yang Du, professor at the Renmin Business School under the Renmin University of China.

The industrial structure of China's manufacturing sector has been optimized during the 14th Five-year Plan period (2021-2025). On one hand, traditional industries saw accelerated transformation and upgrading, with the investment in research and development continuing to increase. On the other hand, China's strategic emerging industries have achieved steady growth, and the old growth drivers are replaced by new ones at a faster pace. The new quality productive forces driven by scientific and technological innovation is injecting strong momentum into the high-quality development of China's manufacturing sector.

"Spurring industrial innovation by making innovations in science and technology, “accelerating the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces play key roles in upgrading industrial structures and improving the quality of economic development. The increasing number of advanced manufacturing enterprises on the list reflects a positive interaction between the accelerated cultivation of new drivers of growth and upgrading of traditional ones," said Zhu Hongren, secretary-general of China Enterprise Confederation.

UN opposes 'extrajudicial execution', urges de-escalation of Middle East conflict: deputy spokesman

The United Nations (UN) is opposed to anything that "could constitute extrajudicial execution" and urged all relevant parties to avoid further escalation of the Middle East conflict, said Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a press conference in New York City on Wednesday.

Haq was responding to a media query about the killing of Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, and Iran's Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, in Israeli attacks earlier this week.

The assassinations of Khatib and Iran's top security official Larijani were confirmed by the Iranian government on Wednesday and Tuesday, respectively.

Haq also briefed the press about Guterres' ongoing visit to Brussels, during which the Secretary-General will hold meetings with European Union (EU) leaders on UN-EU ties and global hotspot issues, such as the conflict in the Middle East and the Ukraine crisis.

"The Secretary-General arrived in Brussels earlier this morning for a series of meetings, including with European Union officials. He met earlier this afternoon with Maxime Prevot, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs and Development Cooperation of Belgium. The Secretary-General then began his meetings with European Union officials, starting with Roberta Metsola, the president of the European Parliament. The Secretary-General and the president discussed the partnership between the United Nations and the European Union. They also discussed a number of crises around the world, including the situation in the Middle East and the ongoing war in Ukraine," said Haq.

"The Secretary-General will travel to the seat of the European Commission for discussions with Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. And later, the Secretary-General will meet with Antonio Costa, President of the European Council, and also have a working dinner with Mr. Costa," he said.

On the killing of a string of senior Iranian officials, Haq expressed the UN's opposition to illegal military strikes and repeated its call for a de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East.

"First of all, as a point of principle, the United Nations is opposed to anything that could constitute extrajudicial execution, and that's true in all such cases, But beyond that, we do not believe that there is a military solution to this problem and we reiterate our call to Israel, to the United States, to Iran, and to any other parties to avoid any further escalation of this conflict," he said.