LinkedIn Helps Chinese Enterprises Going Global in the New Era

The coming year 2026 marks a milestone for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which has come into effect for 4 years. During these years, economic cooperation between RCEP countries have grown strong. Data provided by Customs Office of China have showed that the trade volume between China and ASEAN countries, which is the main part of RCEP and the biggest trade partner of China, has come above 1 trillion US dollar in 2025. A research provided by the ADB shows that RCEP can create 2.8 million jobs in the region by 2030.

“In the Asia and Pacific (APAC) countries, we can see hiring numbers exceeding the global average.” said Pei Ying Chua, APAC Head Economist at LinkedIn. According to her, companies continue to grow their business footprint in the region, particularly in fields like manufacturing, finance, and professional services, also in healthcare industry. Pei Ying mentioned that there is a clear and growing demand for workers in the healthcare sector. Data proves her argument, giving that the demand for talents has an increase rate by 11% compared to December 2019, ranking first among industries.

Pei Ying noticed that one of the most in-demand core trade talents in the Asia-Pacific region is a somewhat “combination of skills”. LinkedIn data shows a growing importance of job roles that require “hybrid skills”, which means a combination of technical skills, operational skills, and human-centric skills. There is also a rising importance place on language fluency in a global finance market, which creates a model of talent with “language+skills”.

Meanwhile, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become vital in these years, also affecting hiring markets in the APAC region. AI has created more than 1.3 million job positions worldwide in the past two years. 

“What we have found is a clear imbalance in the AI talent market. More than 70% of recruiters across APAC say it is harder to find qualified candidates.” Pei Ying said. According to her, there are 2 main categories of AI-related skills, one is AI engineering, which only few of the workforce have, the other is AI literacy, which means ability to understand and effectively use AI tools, and is regarded as critically important by Pei Ying.

At the same time, Pei Ying believes that every company will develop its own guidelines and rules around AI usage. As part of the shift toward AI literacy, it’s not just about training employees, this broader upskilling effort will become increasingly prominent. For enterprises, AI literacy is not just about training employees, some kinds of broader upskilling effort will become increasingly prominent.

Another important trend relates to talent mobility according to Pei Ying. “Asia is home to many different countries, and talent in the region is highly mobile. It can be seen that professionals moving across borders frequently, both within Asia and to other regions. As companies expand into Asia, it is expected to see an acceleration in talent mobility.” said Pei Ying, she also believes that the growing of middle class and an increasing number of people with rising spending power can further supports economic and workforce growth across the region.

Nowadays, Chinese enterprises are accelerating their global expansion. Many companies are operating across multiple markets from an early stage, making global talent acquisition an increasingly critical capability as they scale internationally.

However, many Chinese enterprises expanding overseas report increasing difficulty in securing sufficient talent. Research shows that two thirds of HR professionals worldwide from SMBs worldwide faced challenges in finding suitable candidates over the past year, while 40% experienced significant pressure in hiring capable staff. Talent shortages, particularly in localized and cross-cultural roles, have become one of the most critical bottlenecks constraining the global expansion of Chinese companies.

Regarding these, Pei Ying said, “LinkedIn is guided by a clear set of values, one of the most important being ‘members first’, This means we always prioritize our members and our clients. As a result, we will continue to improve the products and solutions we offer, particularly for the APAC region.”

As she has mentioned, there are indeed a set of products provided by LinkedIn, including LinkedIn Hiring Assistant which is mentioned by Pei Ying, this tool leverages AI to improve decision-making in the whole hiring process, helping recruiters find talent more efficiently even when they have fewer local connections in a new market. Another product, LinkedIn AI Recruiter, has recently introduced an AI-assisted search feature in Chinese, enabling recruiters to use a conversational interface and AI-powered recommendations to more efficiently identify and connect with qualified talent. 

 “LinkedIn’s hiring solutions not only helps companies to identify talents more effectively but also gives companies support when they enter unfamiliar markets.” said Pei Ying. According to data provided by LinkedIn, LinkedIn Hiring Assistant can save recruiters more than 4 hours per role they are hiring for. They reduce the need to manually review profiles by 62%, and increase the acceptance rate of qualified connections by nearly 70%. The wide use of AI is helping the enterprises to simplify the hiring process greatly by 30%. Not only that, AI is becoming a true hiring multiplier. Across APAC, 61–71% of recruiters say AI enables them to identify qualified candidates they would otherwise overlook, helping them broaden talent reach and make hiring decisions that are fairer and more consistent.

Pei Ying also mentioned that LinkedIn makes room for internal workforce development and upskilling and offers more than 24500 LinkedIn Learning courses. which is flexible, on-the-go, and highly targeted and allows people to learn what they need, when and where they need it.

Facing the future, Pei Ying highlighted several key talent trends in the APAC region that Chinese enterprises should pay close attention to as they continue expanding globally. 

The first of which is internal mobility and enterprises should make better use of talent that organisations already have. The second of which with improved importance is the AI literacy, which goes beyond basic technical knowledge and will become increasingly critical across roles and industries.

“Last but not least, a trend that is particularly pronounced in APAC is regional talent mobility. We see significant movement of talent between, as well as across the broader region.” Pei Ying suggests, for enterprises looking to grow in Asia, this underscores the importance of having a strong talent strategy. 

“A strong talent strategy starts with having a clear understanding of the critical skills required, the roles needed, and how adjacent roles connect to one another. With this clarity, companies can better enable internal mobility. Another essential component of talent strategy is building strong leadership pipelines. Operating across multiple Asian markets requires capable local leadership, and companies need a deliberate approach to developing leaders across different countries.” Pei Ying suggests.

For Chinese enterprises in particular, Pei Ying suggests that building bilingual talent pools should be a critical priority. This, like all aspects of talent strategy, is about ensuring organizations have the right capabilities in place before expanding further and scaling sustainably.