Li Dongsheng: "Rooting industrial and supply chain capabilities more deeply into major regional markets around the world"

"Under the influence of many factors of changes in international rules, the global industrial chain has changed from simply maximizing the efficiency of production factor allocation to taking into account various factors; from one center to multiple centers, forming a regional industrial chain or a single country's industrial chain." On the occasion of the upcoming National People's Congress in 2025, Li Dongsheng, a deputy to the National People's Congress and the founder and chairman of TCL, said in an exclusive interview with several media, "Our globalization is a long-term strategy. We need to adapt to the changes in global trade rules and the restructuring of the economic pattern, and take industry and supply chain capabilities more deeply into root in the world's major regional markets."

Li Dongsheng believes that technological capabilities have become an important pivot for Chinese enterprises to build a global pattern. Simple processing and manufacturing cannot constitute a competitive advantage. In the process of transferring industries and supply chains, it is important for Chinese enterprises to maintain their advantage in technology.

It is worth mentioning that TCL has participated in the China International Supply Chain Promotion Expo (hereinafter referred to as the "Chain Expo") for two consecutive years. At the opening ceremony of the first Chain Expo held in 2023, Li Dongsheng delivered a congratulatory message; At the second Chain Expo held in 2024, Li Dongsheng was invited to attend a symposium with representatives of participating companies. He stated that in the face of the global industrial restructuring, TCL will firmly adhere to its globalization strategy and continue to improve its global industrial and supply chain layout.

At the second Chain Expo, TCL participated through two main entities, TCL Industry and TCL Technology, focusing on the three core industries of intelligent terminals, semiconductor displays, and new energy photovoltaics, and jointly supporting the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to build three pan semiconductor supply chains. Joining hands with Japan's AGC Asahi Glass, South Korea's Samsung, Lenovo, Xiaomi and other upstream and downstream industries, we are working together to build a secure, efficient and stable operational system for the display industry supply chain.

Globalization is localization "has been TCL's long-standing slogan. Not only in terms of organization, but also in terms of building business capabilities. "Our operations in each region are carried out by local management and management teams, and the headquarters provides more support in the middle and back office," Li Dongsheng said. Through the globalization of enterprise cadres and employees, TCL has truly transformed from a Chinese enterprise to a global enterprise, establishing local, efficient, and competitive enterprise organizations in different countries and regions.

Li Dongsheng emphasized that in order to achieve the goal of rooting in the region, TCL has explored the organization by splitting the unified global business management headquarters into five regional headquarters, each with relatively complete functions. The layout of the supply chain, manufacturing capabilities, product design capabilities, sales and service capabilities are all built and improved within this region.

One of the suggestions put forward by Li Dongsheng during his participation in the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference is the "Proposal on Optimizing the Financing Environment for China's Science and Technology Manufacturing Industry". In this proposal, Li Dongsheng proposed to provide innovative capital market services and support for the leading technology manufacturing industry; Moderately relax equity financing restrictions for leading technology manufacturing industries; Approve projects in accordance with clear regulations to improve the predictability of capital market financing.

Li Dongsheng stated that the development of the technology manufacturing industry requires sustained capital investment, which not only comes from the shareholders of the project, but also from the capital market. He believes that the development stage of enterprises in Chinese Mainland is different from that of foreign enterprises. They are in the catching up stage in technology and have small assets in development scale. It is difficult to develop without sufficient financing support.

Li Dongsheng believes that the technology manufacturing industry is a high-tech, heavy asset, and long-term industry. The technology manufacturing industry must establish competitiveness so that we can establish advantages in global manufacturing and industrial competition. Technology manufacturing is a fundamental industry that must be developed well

Overall, China's technology manufacturing industry has a dual advantage of cost-effectiveness and quality. It has advantages in cost efficiency and is rapidly catching up in technological innovation. "Li Dongsheng said that the technology manufacturing industry places more emphasis on technological attributes in manufacturing and has greater technological capabilities to support it. Chinese top enterprises have achieved fruitful results in patents and are in a leading position among global peers.

Taking TCL as an example, the company has applied for a total of 110000 patents, including 18000 PCT patents, which are increasing every year. The investment in technology and the accumulation of technological capabilities support the improvement of the competitiveness of China's science and technology manufacturing industry, "said Li Dongsheng.