Published: Dec. 23, 2025 at 7:51 a.m. ET
For years, multinational brands treated China as a growth engine that only needed time and scale. More stores, broader coverage and brand recognition were supposed to do the work. Today, that assumption is quietly unraveling.
Across retail, food, and consumer services, global companies are discovering that China’s consumers have moved faster than they have. Price sensitivity has sharpened, tastes have localized and domestic competitors have learned how to iterate at speed. The result is a market where foreign brands are no longer losing because China is “closed” but because it has become intensely competitive — and unforgiving to those that fail to adapt.
