A new era in global economic competition may be dawning with the acquisition by China's JD.com, one of the Far East's largest online and offline retail companies, of a 57.1 percent majority stake in Germany's Ceconomy, which operates the MediaMarkt and Saturn retail chains, for 860 billion forints. This move is not merely a business transaction, but a symbolic sign of the restructuring of the global economy: while a decade ago Western companies were trying to conquer the Chinese market, now Chinese companies are preparing to take over European shelves. The acquisition of JD.com suggests that the Chinese economic model is no longer based solely on the role of supplier, but on the global positioning of its own brands and products, according to the analysis by Oeconomus.
China will take the initiative to open wider in the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China's Commerce Minister Wang Wentao said Friday.