Zeng Ming, the former chief of general staff of Alibaba Group, pointed out at the Harvard China Forum that Chinese companies should no longer simply be viewed as low cost competition, especially low labor costs. Chinese companies have an innovative strategy, which can be called cost innovation. Cost innovation has two elements: the first is cost reduction, and the second is innovation. “You're really innovating at a lower cost. As a result, it provides a competitive advantage for Chinese manufacturing companies to become global leaders, who have climbed the value chain over the past 20 years.” “I summarized my findings in my first book published in 2007. The key case in that book is Huawei. We all know what has happened to Huawei in the past 30 years,” he said. (See Economy)