China issues 2020 list of top 500 enterprises

ZHENGZHOU -- China published the 2020 list of the top 500 Chinese enterprises on Monday, which showed improved performance and more research and development (R&D) spending by the companies.

The new list, jointly issued by the China Enterprise Confederation and China Enterprise Directors Association for the 19th consecutive year, showed that the combined net profit of the firms rose 10.2 percent year-on-year.

China Petrochemical Corporation topped the list, followed by the State Grid Corporation of China and China National Petroleum Corporation.

Among the 500 firms, 431 reported R&D data. Their combined R&D spending totaled 1.08 trillion yuan ($158.2 billion), with the proportion of R&D expenditure to operating revenue rising to a historical high of 1.61 percent.

The number of firms with a revenue of more than 100 billion yuan reached 217 from 194 last year.