Amid fast-paced changes that fill the business community with excitement, angst and trepidation, EqualOcean will publish a series of roundup articles to document the major events related to Chinese companies going global every week.
Weekly Overview (10/05-16/05)
1. CHAGEE (霸王茶姬) Officially Opens First Store in Macau; Membership Growth Hits 318% Month-on-Month During Trial Operation
2. Suning.com (苏宁易购) Officially Announces Entry into Overseas Markets, Offering Fully Managed and Semi-Managed Globalization Models
3. Stellantis (斯特兰蒂斯), the World’s Fourth-Largest Automotive Group, Deepens Cooperation with Leapmotor (零跑汽车) in Europe for Mutual Development
4. ByteDance (字节跳动) Plans to Increase 2026 AI Infrastructure Spending by 25%, Exceeding 200 Billion RMB in Total
5. Chery (奇瑞汽车) Responds to "Entering the Japanese Market": Not Participating in Operations or Management
6. Wei Jianjun (魏建军) of GWM (长城汽车): Automobiles Are Not Fast-Moving Consumer Goods; Mutual Benefit Must Promote the Globalization of Domestic Cars
7. Leapmotor (零跑汽车) Launches T03 Leasing Scheme in Germany: €49 per Month
8. Huadong Heavy Machinery (华东重机) Secures 1.5 Billion RMB Major Overseas Order, Plans Private Placement to Raise No More Than 300 Million RMB to Strengthen Core Business
9. SF Holding (顺丰控股) Releases Three-Year Strategic Plan, Anchoring Digital Intelligence and International Transformation
10. BYD (比亚迪) is in Talks with Companies Including Stellantis (斯特兰蒂斯) Regarding the Acquisition of European Factories
11. Zeekr 9X (极氪 9X) Set to Expand Overseas in the Third Quarter of 2026
12. XPENG (小鹏汽车) is in Talks with Volkswagen (大众汽车) Regarding the Acquisition of European Factories
13. Dongfeng Motor (东风汽车) and COSCO SHIPPING (中远海运) Sign Strategic Cooperation Agreement
14. China's April CPI Rises Moderately to 1.2%; PPI Surges Significantly Driven by International Commodities and Computing Power Demand
Selected Developments
1. Suning.com (苏宁易购) Officially Announces Entry into Overseas Markets, Offering Fully Managed and Semi-Managed Globalization Models
【Event】Recently, at the "2026 Suning.com 618 E-commerce Launch and Globalization Strategy Release Conference" held at its Nanjing headquarters, Suning.com (苏宁易购) officially announced its entry into overseas markets. Suning.com (苏宁易购) positions itself as a "one-stop globalization platform," aiming to integrate its years of deep cultivation in supply chain, logistics, and digital intelligence capabilities to provide a full-chain "turnkey globalization" solution for Chinese merchants. This marks another domestic retail giant, following Alibaba (阿里巴巴) and Pinduoduo (拼多多), attempting to replicate China's mature e-commerce fulfillment model on a global scale.
According to the disclosed business roadmap, Suning.com's (苏宁易购) globalization platform has initially covered four core markets: Hong Kong, China; the United States; Southeast Asia; and Latin America. To quickly establish traffic reach, Suning (苏宁) did not choose to act alone but adopted a highly open "all-platform integration" strategy, having already deeply integrated with mainstream cross-border and local overseas platforms such as Lazada, Shopee, Amazon, TEMU, and HKTVmall. Merchants can flexibly choose from various operational schemes such as the "direct mail model" or "warehouse entry model," as well as "fully managed" or "semi-managed" options, leaving tedious compliance filing, cross-border logistics, and local after-sales work to Suning's (苏宁) standardized system.
Currently, the Suning (苏宁) globalization project has attracted over 2,000 brands, with plans to conduct special recruitment events deep in industrial clusters like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Ningbo between May and June. Suning (苏宁) stated that it will further expand into emerging markets such as Europe and Central Asia in the future, using its self-operated "Suning Hong Kong (苏宁香港)" platform as a fulcrum to build a domestic-international dual-circulation supply chain matrix. Analysis suggests that this move is a critical leap for Suning (苏宁) amidst intensifying domestic stock competition, attempting to leverage its massive offline supplier network to provide global consumers with more price-competitive Chinese-made goods.
2. Stellantis (斯特兰蒂斯), the World’s Fourth-Largest Automotive Group, Deepens Cooperation with Leapmotor (零跑汽车) in Europe for Mutual Development
【Event】Recently, Stellantis (斯特兰蒂斯) and Leapmotor (零跑汽车) announced that they will further intensify their production layout in Europe, signifying that the overseas strategy of Chinese automakers has shifted from pure trade exports to deep asset integration. According to the latest disclosed details of the cooperation, the two parties plan to add a new production line at the Zaragoza plant in Spain and officially launch the mass production of Leapmotor's (零跑汽车) mid-size SUV B10 within 2026. Notably, this Leapmotor (零跑汽车) B10 will achieve same-platform production and parts sharing with an all-new electric SUV from Stellantis' (斯特兰蒂斯) Opel (欧宝) brand. However, due to the higher efficiency of the Chinese supply chain, the start of production for the Leapmotor (零跑汽车) model is a full two years earlier than its Opel (欧宝) platform counterpart. This model of utilizing a Chinese technological foundation and sharing local European supply chains not only greatly enhances production efficiency but also equips Chinese brands with stronger cost-hedging capabilities when facing European tariff barriers.
In addition to the Zaragoza plant, the Villaverde plant in Madrid will also undergo significant changes. As the original Citroën (雪铁龙) C4 production line is about to halt due to the end of the model's lifecycle, the two parties plan to introduce a brand-new Leapmotor (零跑汽车) model in 2028 to fill the idle capacity. Currently, the most crucial negotiation between the partners lies in the transfer of asset ownership; they are planning to transfer the ownership of the Villaverde plant to the Spanish subsidiary of the joint venture between Leapmotor (零跑汽车) and Stellantis (斯特兰蒂斯). If this plan is ultimately finalized, it will mark the first time a Chinese automaker has gained substantive control over a mainstream European auto plant through a joint venture, thereby achieving a fundamental leap from "borrowing land for OEM" to "on-site operation." Through this deep binding of joint procurement and factory ownership, Leapmotor (零跑汽车) has not only secured stable localized capacity in Europe but also bypassed the lengthy environmental review and infrastructure cycles required to build its own factory, paving the way for a market breakout in the second half of 2026.
3. ByteDance (字节跳动) Plans to Increase 2026 AI Infrastructure Spending by 25%, Exceeding 200 Billion RMB in Total
【Event】Recently, according to reports, ByteDance (字节跳动) has raised its 2026 AI infrastructure capital expenditure plan to 200 billion RMB (approximately $29.4 billion), an increase of at least 25% from the 160 billion RMB scheme drafted at the end of last year. This aggressive budget adjustment not only reflects ByteDance’s (字节跳动) sustained commitment to the technical foundation of generative AI products like Doubao (豆包) but also demonstrates the company’s ability to absorb costs amidst soaring prices for critical components such as memory chips and HBM (High Bandwidth Memory). By elevating its annual budget to the scale of global tech giants, ByteDance (字节跳动) is attempting to ensure it can compete head-on with top players like OpenAI (OpenAI), Google (谷歌), and Anthropic (Anthropic) in the computing power arms race.
Under an increasingly complex geopolitical landscape, the core characteristic of ByteDance’s (字节跳动) budget adjustment lies in the accelerated transition toward "de-Americanization" and "autonomy." Within this massive 200-billion-RMB budget, the procurement proportion of domestic AI chips will be significantly increased, a move precisely aligned with Beijing’s national strategy for semiconductor self-sufficiency. Given the strict U.S. advanced semiconductor export controls—supported by countries like Chile—and the increasing supply uncertainty of high-performance American chips such as those from Nvidia (英伟达), ByteDance (字节跳动) aims to fundamentally mitigate supply chain disruption risks and, in turn, support the development of the local high-performance computing ecosystem.
Currently, ByteDance’s (字节跳动) Doubao (豆包) model has become the most downloaded AI chat application in China. Its massive user base and complex long-range dialogue requirements place extreme efficiency demands on underlying infrastructure. Analysts believe that while the $29.4 billion scale still trails the approximately $200 billion annual expenditures of American giants like Amazon (亚马逊) and Google (谷歌), ByteDance's (字节跳动) refined management of unit computing costs and early alignment with domestic chips have positioned it with a long-term advantage in technological independence among Chinese tech firms. As this capital continues to flow into computing cluster construction and model iteration throughout 2026, ByteDance (字节跳动) is expected to build a globalized AI competitiveness based entirely on an autonomous foundation while achieving technical independence.
4. Leapmotor (零跑汽车) Launches T03 Leasing Scheme in Germany: €49 per Month
【Event】Recently, Leapmotor (零跑汽车) officially launched an extremely aggressive leasing scheme for the T03 in the German market, with a starting price of just €49 per month (approximately 390 RMB). This price is even lower than many mid-to-high-end mobile phone plans in Germany, sending shockwaves through the entry-level electric vehicle segment. By comparison, the Fiat 500e (菲亚特 500e), also under the Stellantis (斯特兰蒂斯) group, has a starting lease price of approximately €99 in Germany. The core logic behind Leapmotor's (零跑汽车) ability to halve this price lies in its precise alignment with the German government's newly launched €3 billion electric vehicle incentive program for 2026. This program specifically provides high tax rebates for low-to-middle-income families and small commuter cars; by factoring these subsidies directly into its leasing financial package, Leapmotor (零跑汽车) has successfully introduced a "dimensionality-reducing" price point in the heart of Europe.
Despite the low price, the Leapmotor T03 (零跑 T03) demonstrates strong product competitiveness in the German market. Unlike local European brands that typically treat panoramic sunroofs, reversing cameras, and six airbags as expensive optional extras, Leapmotor (零跑汽车) includes these features as standard, directly rivaling and surpassing core competitors like the Dacia Spring (达契亚 Spring). Furthermore, Leapmotor's (零跑汽车) ability to achieve such aggressive expansion is largely due to the "green channel" provided by Stellantis (斯特兰蒂斯). Leapmotor (零跑汽车) does not need to build a distribution network from scratch like other new players; instead, it has directly integrated into Stellantis' (斯特兰蒂斯) existing sales and after-sales network in Germany. This "Chinese architecture + European channel" model allows Leapmotor (零跑汽车) to significantly reduce initial operating costs while quickly gaining the trust of local consumers.
5. SF Holding (顺丰控股) Releases Three-Year Strategic Plan, Anchoring Digital Intelligence and International Transformation
【Event】Recently, SF Holding (顺丰控股) officially announced its strategic roadmap for the next three years at its annual shareholders' meeting. SF (顺丰) explicitly proposed to leverage the entire group's strength to fortify its three core sectors: express delivery, digital intelligence supply chain, and international business. The strategy aims to reshape its position in the global logistics landscape through "four transformations": from single products to integrated solutions, from the domestic market to a global network, from experience-driven to data-driven decision-making, and from labor-intensive to a digital intelligence foundation.
The plan designates 2026 as a year of "initial results" and local breakthroughs, requiring the digital intelligence supply chain to create benchmark cases in key industries and international products to achieve breakthroughs in niche tracks. This will be followed by a "scale replication" phase in 2027 through the modular output of mature models, ultimately achieving a comprehensive performance leap in 2028 and fully transforming the second growth curve into a core engine. In its highly anticipated international layout, SF (顺丰) proposed a "three-in-one" strategy of "model breakthrough, infrastructure upgrade, and investment reinforcement." To compete head-to-head with global giants in core markets such as Southeast Asia, SF (顺丰) plans to focus on breaking through with industry chain leaders in 2026, moving away from a reliance on scattered orders toward customized end-to-end supply chains that penetrate deep into manufacturing hubs.
On the hardware level, SF (顺丰) will rely on the aviation hub status of Ezhou Huahu Airport (鄂州花湖机场) to further upgrade global aviation trunk lines and overseas warehouse networks, building highly resilient and differentiated barriers. Financial data shows that SF's (顺丰) revenue surpassed the 300-billion-yuan mark in 2025. With the implementation of investments targeted at computing power and AI empowerment in 2026, SF (顺丰) is attempting to utilize AI to comprehensively boost organizational efficiency, ensuring leapfrog performance growth driven by "Chinese solutions" amidst a complex geopolitical environment.
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Since 2018, EqualOcean has been dedicated to tracking and analyzing the global expansion of Chinese enterprises. We welcome contributions from industry professionals to share your expertise and insights. Companies seeking international growth, media exposure, or discussions on overseas strategies are also encouraged to contact us directly.
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