Global firms turn to Chinese partners amid economic, geopolitical turmoil

Global companies are turning back toward Chinese partners not because the politics have eased, but because the economics have become harder to ignore. Anu Aiyengar, JPMorgan’s global chair of investment banking, said from Shanghai that mounting risks and the need for scale are pushing chief executives toward collaborations, acquisitions and licensing deals rather than trying to go it alone.

The shift is most visible in sectors where Chinese firms are no longer seen only as rivals. In biotechnology and technology, Aiyengar said Chinese companies are increasingly being viewed as innovation partners, a framing that is proving more practical for multinationals looking to shore up pipelines, cut costs and spread risk. In pharmaceuticals, the pressure is especially acute: global drugmakers are racing to license China-developed experimental medicines before patent expirations squeeze their own portfolios.

That urgency is already showing up in the numbers. Reuters reported on February 13, 2026, that global drugmakers were stepping up their search for China-developed experimental medicines as they trimmed costs ahead of patent expirations, and industry analysts expected licensing deals to hit a fresh record in 2026. The broader deal market is echoing the same pattern. LSEG data cited by Reuters showed Asia Pacific merger and acquisition activity excluding Japan up 57% from a year earlier in 2026, the strongest start since 2022.

Hong Kong has become a key pressure point in the rebound. Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said in April that more than 500 companies were waiting to list, many of them from fast-growing technology sectors. Reuters reported on May 20 that about 10 companies from Indonesia, South Korea and Singapore had already filed for Hong Kong listings this year, a sign that the recovery is broadening beyond mainland China. KPMG said Hong Kong reclaimed the top spot in global IPO market rankings for the first time since 2019, helped by a record number of A+H listings.

JPMorgan is moving to capture that flow. The bank reported record first-quarter investment-banking revenue and said it was hiring additional bankers in Japan, Australia, Hong Kong and China. BCG has said confidence entering 2026 remained measured because macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainty persisted, underscoring the tension at the center of the market: Washington is still pushing de-risking, but global firms are recalculating around resilience, access and the need to stay plugged into China’s innovation and capital markets.