Eric Lu, a young American of Taiwanese origin, has just been awarded the Chopin Prize, the highest distinction for a pianist. He succeeds Yundi-Li, born in Chongqing, who had obtained it at the age of 18 a few years earlier, and Seong-Jincho, a South Korean national. They follow in the footsteps of Beijing-born Yuja-Wang and Lang Lang, a native of Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning, who have become two of the most beloved pianists on the planet. China has almost half of the world's piano players, and it's no surprise that its artists have been able to seduce and enthuse music lovers far beyond their borders.
Two key lessons can be drawn from this to understanding the evolution of the global economy and the success of Chinese industry. First of all, there is the size effect. The higher the number of piano players, the higher the probability that an exceptional artist will appear. It is neither a necessary condition nor a sufficient one, but it is a reality. The second concerns the opening effect. The piano is a European instrument like the composers who have written scores that enchant far beyond the borders of the countries where they have lived.
China has a culture inherited from a thousand-year-old civilization in which music as art and the piano did not occupy a central place. The openness of society has fostered the adoption of the instrument and the scores, made them loved and has given rise to talents that are now recognized throughout the world. The combination of these two effects, size and openness, are at the origin of these successes. Their transposition to the economy is obvious but insufficiently accepted, particularly in the field of international trade.
China's foreign trade reached a new record in 2025. Their volume was $6,480 billion, up 3.8% compared to 2024. The trade surplus was $1.214 trillion with exports of $3.86 trillion, up 6.1%. The near-stagnation of imports should not be misinterpreted as the country's growth in 2025 is expected to be around 5%. It is mainly the result of the fall in the price of oil and gas that China imports, which has reduced its energy bill.
These results are all the more flattering given that the world has experienced a wave of protectionism triggered by the Trump administration, which also includes great volatility in the level of tariffs. This has created a climate of uncertainty that is harmful to growth and foreign trade. The export performance of Chinese companies is all the more remarkable and shows that they have managed to overcome the effects of this unfavorable environment.
The theories developed in the West according to which these successes are the result of aid provided by the State in a context of slowing domestic demand are not convincing. This would have generated overcapacity that Chinese groups would have sold around the world at low prices. There is no doubt that the country is facing near-stagnation in domestic consumption and a major real estate crisis. But Chinese industrial groups had begun their transformation long before and had set themselves the goal of facing their American, Japanese or European competitors with considerable research efforts thanks to the training of hundreds of thousands of high-quality engineers and technicians each year.
This is where the "Lang Lang effect" came into play, with the size of the Chinese domestic market, which is far greater than that of competing countries. It is a major factor in competitiveness. Production costs and especially fixed costs, such as research or management, decline with volumes. This is what has allowed the Chinese industry to gradually move from the status of a world factory to a major player in the world market. But that was not enough. China has a civilization and culture that are among the oldest in the world and have little in common with those of Western countries. But to sell on the global market, you have to be willing to make the necessary efforts to understand the expectations of countries and their consumers in order to satisfy them.
The first example is that of renewable energies. The debate on global warming did not originate in China. For a long time, it was even considered in Beijing that it was caused by the accumulation of emissions from the major industrial powers over the past years and that it was therefore up to them to take measures to curb its aggravation. This is no longer the case and the Chinese authorities, in order to reduce their dependence on imported fossil fuels and to help fight against this warming, which would heavily affect the country, have launched vast programs in the nuclear and hydraulic sectors, then in renewable energies.
Thus, in a few years, thanks to the size of its domestic market, the competence of its engineers and the essential raw materials such as rare earths that China had at its disposal, the country has become the undisputed leader in solar panels and is able to supply the whole world, which contributes to increasing its exports and its trade surplus. The next Five-Year Plan will prioritize the combination of industry innovation with green requirements.
The second example is that of the automotive industry. Its success today in the world market is not the result of any overcapacity or subsidies, but of the understanding of the managers of these companies of the evolution of consumer demand. For a long time, the acquisition of a foreign-made car was a sign of social success. In the capital of China's Silicon Valley, Shenzhen, there were more registered Porsches than in France. This has long made the fortune of German manufacturers. But those days are over.
Chinese manufacturers have integrated into their models everything that made their competitors successful and the share of foreign brands has begun to decline. In 2025, VW's registrations in China fell by 8%, BMW's by 12.5% and Mercedes' by 19%. During this period, sales of electric vehicles in China reached 8 million, compared to only 3 million in Europe and 1.7 million in the United States.
Chinese brands are starting to make their mark. The leader in electric vehicles, BYD, has overtaken Tesla and the gap between these two manufacturers will continue to widen in the future. This movement is not limited to electric vehicles. The ability of these brands to understand and satisfy the tastes and needs of European consumers is exceptional, whether in terms of design, safety or comfort. It is indisputable that the size effect and the cost of labour, which is still much lower than in Europe, are advantages that cannot be neutralised by the various taxes and standards imposed by Brussels. But it would be wrong to see this as the main cause of their success.
By ignoring the reasons for all these successes, European industry will have little chance of finding appropriate remedies and the worldwide success of Lang Lang will have been a signal of that of many branches of Chinese industry.