What would it say about US innovation and President Joe Biden’s stewardship of the economy if America’s largest beer company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, had a bigger market capitalisation than Apple? Nothing good, probably, and indeed the very thought is a ridiculous one. Apple’s $2.2tn market cap is almost 28 times larger than AB InBev’s $80bn.
But that is exactly what happened recently in China, where Xi Jinping is about to embark on a third term as Communist party leader, military commander-in-chief and state president. Late last month China’s most famous liquor maker, Kweichow Moutai, overtook Tencent as the country’s most valuable company.
How can this be? Tencent is one of the most innovative and successful technology companies in the world’s second-largest economy. It developed the country’s most popular instant messaging and social media app, WeChat, and its WePay online payments platform is second only to Alibaba’s Alipay. Kweichow Moutai, which brews a strong-smelling, 76 to 106-proof grain liquor, sells hangovers.
