Business revenue of the top 500 Chinese enterprises has accounted for 77.04 percent of China's GDP. In 2004, their business revenue totaled 8,993.5 billion yuan, up 29.18 percent over the previous year; their total assets reached 28,228.4 billion yuan, an increase of 3.16 percent; and the number of their employees stood at 20.66 million, up 2.59 percent. Between 2002 and 2004, their business revenue grew 21.36 percent annually on average, and their average annual increase in total assets was 4.13 percent.

In 2004, the threshold for the top 500 Chinese enterprises was raised again, compared to 2003, with the 500th enterprise having 3.06 billion yuan in business revenue, 560 million yuan more than in the previous year. Over the past three years, the threshold has been raised by an annual average of 500 million yuan. Of the top 500 Chinese enterprises in 2004, 101 entered the list for the first time, demonstrating more intensifying competition between large Chinese enterprises, and accelerated pace of reorganization and transformation of Chinese enterprises.

Of the top 500 Chinese enterprises, 18 were up to the standards of Fortune Global 500 in 2004. Of them, the State Grid Corp. became the first Chinese enterprise listed among the world top 50 conglomerates, ranking 46th on the list of Fortune Global 500. Four Chinese manufacturing enterprises attained the standard of the world top 500 for the first time, simultaneously, in terms of business revenue. They were Baosteel Group (120.42 billion yuan in business revenue), FAW Group (119.18 billion yuan), Shanghai Automotive (97.29 billion yuan) and Dongfeng Automobile (90.03 billion).