Number of Chinese Firms Featured in Fortune 500 Reached Record High
The number of Chinese companies featured in the annual Fortune 500 list of top
global companies rose to their highest level ever, with 37 companies entered in the
rankings. In announcing the new list, media noted that if the current trends continue,
by 2025 China will become the world’s second-largest economy.
According to a 2008 study by the US research organization Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, China’s economy will overtake that of the US by 2035 and be
twice its size by mid-century.
Signaling the effects of the devastating financial crisis on the US economy, a non-US
firm topped the list for the first time in more than a decade, and the US companies
feature in the list fell to 140, the lowest level since Fortune began the list in 1995.
Japan was second with 68 firms, while France and Germany narrowly edged out
China with 40 and 39 firms respectively.
The Anglo-Dutch energy giant Royal Dutch Shell coming first as it brought in US$15
billion more in sales than the second-placed oil rival Exxon Mobil of the US. US-
based Wal-Mart Stores sipped from last year’s top spot to third, with revenues of more
than US$405 billion. The Fortune ranking is based only on revenues.
This year, China had nine new companies listed in the Fortune 500. China witnessed
its fortunes rise across the board with oil giant China Petroleum & Chemical Corp
appearing in the top 10 for the first time, generating US$207.8 billion in revenues.
The company, also known as Sinopec, supplies approximately 80 percent of fuel in
China. Seven of the top 10 were oil firms except one, Toyota motor, was a carmaker.
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Biography
Dr. Janice Yu, is a senior e-learning analyst of TutorChinese with focus
on online language education research. She is also a news editor of the
Government Information Office in Taiwan. Previously she wrote
columns on international politics and economy in the Central Daily
News. In 1998, Yu was a Jefferson Fellow at the East-West Center in
Hawaii and she won the 1999 Distinguished Women Journalist Award from Friends of

the East-West Center Foundation. Yu completed her PhD at the University of Iowa
and served as a news editor at the China Television Company. Yu has published
around 30 books.