Editor's Note: This year's two sessions, which opened on March 4, come at a pivotal moment as China embarks on its 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30). We invited executives from multinational corporations to share their perspectives on the resilience of China's economic growth, the role of their China operations within global strategies, 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?

Markmann: China's 2026 growth target and proactive fiscal stance send a clear signal of policy continuity and economic resilience. For Grundfos, the shift from "quantity" to "quality" growth is particularly meaningful for our business, which focuses on adding value for our customers rather than competing on price. In addition, the government's focus on green transition and industrial upgrading perfectly aligns with our core DNA in energy efficiency.

Amid global volatility, China acts as a strategic stabilizer. The relative certainty of the Chinese market allows us to maintain a long-term capital allocation strategy here. We don't just see China as a sales region; it is a critical pillar of our global strategy for footprint, supply chain and R&D center. The dual carbon goals provide a predictable roadmap that reinforces our confidence to continuously expand our high-tech manufacturing and service footprint in the country.

Chow: The Government Work Report presented at the two sessions clearly outlines China's blueprint for high-quality development and continuous opening-up. It showcases profound opportunities, which further strengthen our confidence in China's future development.

Yoovidhya: The Chinese government's 2026 growth target fully demonstrates its determination and capability to achieve high-quality development while maintaining stable growth through precise macroeconomic regulation amid a complex global economic environment. We believe this target is both robust and pragmatic. The Government Work Report clearly outlines the implementation of a more proactive fiscal policy, unblocking bottlenecks in the economic cycle through reform coordination and fostering new growth drivers at a faster pace. These directions at the macro-task level constitute a sufficient policy package to support the achievement of the target and can effectively bolster market confidence.

As a foreign enterprise with deep roots in China for over three decades, TCP Group has consistently maintained unwavering confidence in the Chinese market. Moving forward, TCP Group will continue to uphold the principle of "In China, for China", deeply integrating into the upgrading process of China's industries and resonating with the country's high-quality economic development.

Wang: China's growth target for 2026 reflects a government that is both pragmatic and resolute. Having operated in China for over a decade, LinkedIn has witnessed firsthand how China's policy continuity translates into real business confidence. In a world where global demand is moderating, China's relative macroeconomic stability is a meaningful differentiator for multinational investment decisions.

For LinkedIn, China remains one of our fastest-growing markets globally — 76 percent of China's top 100 outbound enterprises have already established deep partnerships with LinkedIn. The combination of accommodative monetary policy and expansionary fiscal measures reinforces our commitment to deepening our presence here.

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?

Markmann: China leads in applied innovation across digitalization, internet of things and green technologies, driving us to deepen our R&D presence here. Our China R&D center is Grundfos' second-largest worldwide and serves as a global innovation hub for cutting-edge solutions.

China's high-quality application scenarios generate immense traction, driving demand for solutions in areas such as data centers, zero-carbon industrial parks, smart buildings and advanced industrial energy efficiency retrofits. By translating local insights into global competitiveness, we will continue to invest in talent, R&D and advanced production to capture the long-term opportunities ahead.

Chow: The two sessions reaffirm China's commitment to strengthening high-standard opening-up. Over the past few years, we have observed China advancing opening-up, fostering a more transparent, stable and supportive business environment for our operation. China is one of the most important strategic markets for Fonterra, and the biggest market of Fonterra Foodservice.

Innovation is a core engine for China's high-quality development and new quality productive forces. In China, we deploy a locally driven innovation strategy through six Fonterra application centers and one Fonterra innovation center. This year, we will further invest in our application and innovation centers to enhance innovation capabilities across the country.

Yoovidhya: China's vibrant consumer market, rising innovation density and efficient supply chain system continue to solidify its dual role as both a "ballast" and a "source of innovation" in TCP Group's global strategy. The 2025 data confirm the strong resilience and transformation momentum of the Chinese market, reinforcing our conviction that "investing in China is investing in the future."

Our smart factories in Sichuan province and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region leverage China's mature industrial ecosystem to achieve intelligent management across production, warehousing and logistics. This has become a key pillar for improving the quality and efficiency of TCP's global supply chain. Moving forward, we will continue to increase our R&D investment and production capacity in China.

Wang: China's role in LinkedIn's global strategy has never been more strategically significant. The 19.1 percent increase in newly established foreign-invested enterprises in 2025 reflects a business environment that continues to attract global confidence.

For LinkedIn, China functions simultaneously as a critical market, an innovation reference point, and increasingly, a launchpad. We observe that Chinese enterprises' outbound recruitment demand on our platform has grown over 30 percent year-on-year, spanning high-value sectors including smart hardware, industrial robotics, healthcare and new energy. As global supply chains reconfigure, companies that maintain deep roots in China gain not only market access, but also the insight needed to navigate an increasingly complex world.

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?

Markmann: The evolution of China's ultra-large-scale market and its growing domestic demand present structured and strategic opportunities for Grundfos, directly shaping our product, channel and investment approaches.

In product strategy, this drives a shift to delivering deeply scenario-based solutions. Urbanization and the development of a unified national market are fueling demand for complex and standardized applications, such as nationwide data center networks and urban transit water infrastructure. Meanwhile, rising consumer spending is increasing the need for comfort and energy efficiency across commercial/domestic buildings, hotels and healthcare facilities.

In essence, the scale and sophistication of the Chinese market are propelling Grundfos' transition from primarily a product supplier to an energy efficiency service partner, and even a standardization contributor. Our localized investments will continue to align closely with local transformation.

Yoovidhya: The development of a unified national market presents a clear path for TCP Group to optimize its regional footprint. Leveraging this efficient and connected domestic market allows our production bases in Sichuan and Guangxi to reach the entire country more conveniently, reducing cross-regional logistics costs.

The consumption upgrade driven by urbanization requires us to accelerate product penetration into emerging cities and county-level markets, while continuing to strengthen our presence in first and second-tier cities.

Moving forward, we will harness the scale effect of the unified market to deepen the integration of online and offline channels. By offering a richer product portfolio to meet diverse needs, we aim to achieve win-win outcomes as we integrate into the new "dual circulation" development paradigm.

Wang: China's unified national market initiative represents a structural opportunity that few markets in the world can replicate. For LinkedIn, deeper market integration means that demand for professional talent solutions, marketing reach and workforce development is expanding well beyond first-tier cities — creating a broader, more dynamic landscape for both domestic growth and global ambition.

This is particularly relevant as Chinese small and medium-sized businesses accelerate their go-global journey. SMBs contribute 70 percent of global GDP, and China's growing cohort of outbound SMBs is no exception. As domestic market unification reduces operational fragmentation, more Chinese businesses — including smaller enterprises — are building the organizational confidence and financial capacity to go global. With a global ecosystem of 1.3 billion members and 18 million SMBs on our platform, LinkedIn is uniquely positioned to connect Chinese businesses — large and small — with the right talent, partners and audiences worldwide. LinkedIn's talent, marketing and learning solutions are designed precisely to serve this expanding base, helping companies of all sizes build global teams, establish trusted brand presence and upskill their workforce for the AI era.

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?

Chow: The two sessions emphasize that consumption is a core driver of economic growth, and China will deepen measures to boost consumption capacity. In recent years, China's food and beverage market has seen an increasing demand for health and nutrition solutions. Known as the source of safe, high-quality, and sustainable dairy nutrition, Fonterra is committed to providing our premium grass-fed dairy products to meet the needs of health in the Chinese market.

Yoovidhya: TCP Group actively embraces the initiatives of "Shopping in China" and "Export to China". On the domestic front, we closely follow consumption upgrade trends by gaining deep insights into the daily drinking habits of Chinese consumers and continuously optimizing our product portfolio — making Red Bull an energetic companion for consumers at work, study, sports and leisure. At the same time, we are actively integrating into the development of new consumption scenarios and lower-tier markets. Through an online-merged-offline new retail approach, we aim to build emotional connections with consumers at more touchpoints. On the international front, we fully leverage the geographic advantage of our Guangxi production base, which connects to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. By deeply integrating it into our global supply chain, we are exploring pathways to use China as a hub to radiate into international markets.

Wang: The "Shopping in China" and "Export to China" initiatives signal a China that is simultaneously deepening domestic consumption and reinforcing its global trade competitiveness. Linked-In's role sits at the intersection of both: we help Chinese enterprises build the human capital infrastructure needed to succeed on both fronts.

As Chinese companies expand globally, the ability to attract and retain world-class talent — both at home and abroad — becomes a decisive competitive advantage. We have seen Chinese outbound enterprises' overseas talent recruitment demand reach 4.5 million positions. Whether a company is serving Chinese consumers or exporting to global markets, talent localization is the linchpin of success. LinkedIn is uniquely positioned to help Chinese enterprises build globally competitive teams, establish trusted employer brands in overseas markets, and leverage AI-powered tools to make smarter, faster talent decisions — enabling them to thrive in both the domestic and global arenas.

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?

Markmann: Our "AI + Energy Efficiency" strategy is central to this. We are moving beyond simple hardware to an AI-driven company as a global strategy. China has the roots for such development. By leveraging our local digitalization R&D team, we have already developed an AI-driven digital tool to analyze energy consumption, water flow and pressure in real-time; we can reduce energy consumption and water consumption, adding significant value to our customers. We firmly believe that the transformation underway in China serves not only as a growth driver for our business, but also as a vital engine for Grundfos' global technological innovation.

Chow: The two sessions highlight that China will focus on environmental protection, green economy transition and carbon emission control in the next five years. Originating from New Zealand, Fonterra is renowned for its leading grass-fed farming, which produces high-quality dairy with low carbon emissions. With our premium offering of grass-fed dairy, we are supporting the Chinese dairy industry to achieve its sustainable development goals in the country's newest development phase.

Yoovidhya: China's significant progress in green transition and AI presents broad opportunities for deeper collaboration with TCP Group. TCP Group is actively embracing this trend by integrating advanced technologies across production, sales, operations and R&D. Our Red Bull production base in Sichuan features industry-leading high-speed fully automated production lines and an automated high-bay warehouse, combining production, storage and resource utilization to meet internationally leading green factory energy efficiency standards. Our Beijing R&D center leverages AI and big data technologies to accurately capture consumer insights and develop more innovative products tailored to local needs in China. For Thai enterprises and other foreign companies, collaborating with Chinese partners in areas such as technology research, product development and market expansion can deliver mutual benefits.

Wang: China's remarkable progress in green transition and AI advancing creates a compelling backdrop for deeper collaboration. At LinkedIn, we see AI as an immediate workforce transformation already underway. In the past two years, enterprises have created at least 1.3 million new AI-related roles globally — a clear signal that the demand for AI-ready talent is accelerating at an unprecedented pace.

The green transition and AI-driven industrial upgrading are, at their core, talent challenges. By 2030, 70 percent of the skills used in today's jobs will change. LinkedIn's "Skills First" approach and our learning platform offering over 25,000 courses — including more than 2,100 dedicated AI courses — are designed to help enterprises and individuals navigate this shift. For Chinese companies leading in new energy, smart manufacturing and digital innovation, LinkedIn is the strategic partner to build the global talent pipelines and organizational capabilities needed to turn China's green and AI ambitions into a competitive advantage.