The top 11 Chinese enterprises have edged into the world's top 500, according to the Report on Development of Chinese Enterprises (2002).

The report, released by the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Enterprise Directors Association, said that Chinese enterprises are still relatively small. In 2002, the average size of assets of China's top 500 enterprises was only 6.46 percent that of the world's top 500, while their average business revenue was only 5.26 percent that of the world's top 500 and their average profit was 12.06 percent. In addition, Chinese enterprises have relatively low capabilities for innovation. Most large Chinese enterprises lag behind international levels regarding the development and application of core technologies. Their R&D inputs are small and it is imperative for them to establish an innovation mechanism. None of China's top 500 firms is able to allocate resources in the global market and engage in multinational operations.

In 2002, Fortune China conducted a survey on 300 relatively successful businesses in China including 3,000 human resources managers. Finally, 20 companies were selected as the most successful for the year. They were: Motorola (Tianjin) Ltd., Shanghai Volkswagen Auto Co., Ltd., Guangzhou P&G Co., Shanghai-GM Automobile Corp. Ltd., Qingdao Haier Co., Legend Group, Shanghai Bell Co., Ltd., Dell Computer (China) Co., Ltd., Kodak (China) Co., Ltd., Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd., Unilever (China) Ltd., HP (China), Ericsson (China) Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., China Mobile (Hong Kong) Ltd., Siemens (China) Co., Ltd., Xian-Janssen Pharmaceutical Ltd., Amway (China) Co., China Unicom and Guangzhou-Honda Automobile Co. Ltd.