China Century Missing In World's Most-Valued Equity
The dearth of Chinese enterprises at the top of the market capitalization rankings is a referendum on the world’s second-largest economy.
The “Chinese Century” is being delayed in the stock market.
Photographer: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images
The past two decades were widely assumed to usher in the transition from the “American Century'' to the “Chinese Century,'' as evidenced by the most populous nation's burgeoning gross domestic product, dominance in manufacturing and global trade and, most recently, advancing technology poised to overtake just about everything in the West.
The world's money says not so. China's juggernaut is a shadow of its perceived self in the market capitalization of the world’s 10 largest companies, seven of which are American, accounting for more than 78% of the group's shareholders equity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Aside from a brief ascendancy with four, or 42%, of the top 10 in 2008 during what was then the worst U.S. recession since the Great Depression, China remains an also-ran. Investors increasingly eschew fossil fuel -- China is the No. 1 polluter with 30% of CO2 emissions, twice the amount produced by the U.S. -- as climate change's existential threat accelerates the preference for innovation, especially clean, or alternative, energy.