Most of the world’s industrial products contain parts that are made in China, while many others are fully assembled in China. Now though, as part of a countrywide drive to re-focus the Chinese economy on innovation, creation and technological research and development, Chinese brands are becoming increasingly abundant even in markets where they were previously rare. Recent figures for the most widely sold smartphones across the world have seen China’s Huawei overtaken the US brand Apple as the second most popular smartphone make in the world while South Korea’s Samsung retained the number one spot. While building, promoting and gaining trust in a major brand takes time and effort, Huawei’s inroads into previously untapped markets is symptomatic of the rapid acceleration of ‘Brand China’ across the globe in a manner that parallels the rapid ascension of Japanese brands worldwide in the 1970s and 1980s when previously unfamiliar companies like Sony, Mitsubishi and Toyota became household names. read more on our Forum