Ram Charan on China’s quiet quest for world domination

Matthew Partridge: What prompted your book? Ram Charan: I have been working in China for more than 20 years with American, European and Chinese companies; in some cases I was on boards as a director. The wake-up call was when I noticed that one US firm, which had a dominant position in the Chinese market, saw its market share begin to decline. Next, its unit costs went up and then the Chinese Communist Party basically forced them to sell their business to the Chinese. This caused me to realise what China is trying to do – produce 90% of the…