China base for global corporate investment
Q2: In 2025, China's exports rose 6.1 percent, newly established foreign-invested enterprises increased by 19.1 percent, and research and development 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?
YANG: Over the past 40 years, Agilent has consistently regarded China as one of its core investment destinations. China has become a key hub in our global supply chain and manufacturing network. China offers a world-class business environment, a globally leading reserve of high-end talent and a comprehensive supply chain ecosystem. Furthermore, the demands of Chinese customers often represent the most cutting-edge trends in the industry. These advantages drive us to continuously expand our local production, increase R&D investment, and deepen domestic partnerships and innovation.
ZHAO: China's strategic importance to Astellas is rising as our local operations evolve into a comprehensive platform combining market, manufacturing and innovation. In 2025, we launched the first segmented production project for a CLDN18.2 monoclonal antibody in China, enhancing supply chain efficiency and accelerating patient access. Meanwhile, Astellas China has also established the first China innovation R&D center, building an innovation ecosystem that integrates early-stage clinical research and real-world evidence generation. With these milestones, Astellas China has achieved a full industry-chain presence, spanning R&D, manufacturing, commercialization and trade. As this industry-chain moves closer to China, we will further leverage China's production efficiency and quality to better support the improvement of China's innovation ecosystem, serving both Chinese and global patients.
AN: For Henkel, China is not just a market; it is a home for co-creation and sustainable growth, today and for decades to come. China has made impressive progress in technological and industrial innovation. Many sectors are developing rapidly and moving to the global forefront. Increasingly, innovations are emerging from China and reaching the market faster than ever. The 15th Five-Year Plan places even greater emphasis on high-quality development and technological innovation. This encourages us to continue strengthening our local innovation capabilities and working closely with customers to co-create solutions.
POON: China is one of our largest and most dynamic markets. We've nurtured deep local roots here for over 30 years. We are proud to have received multiple industry and regional accolades, including Top 10 foreign-invested enterprises by import and export volume and a spot in the city's Top 100 by operating revenue. We have also won the 2026 HKB Greater Bay Area Enterprises Awards (semiconductor category) this year. The honors reflect the trust from the market and long-term value creation for our customers and society. Our "In China, for China" localization strategy is anchored in four core principles: local production, local product definition, local operation and local ecosystem, with Wuxi as our main manufacturing base in China. China is a major market for EV, AI, humanoid robotics and renewables.
