Screenshot from Zhang Xue’s Douyin account

As ZXMOTO founder Zhang Xue’s remark of “not a single cent” in a previous interview sparked discussion and misinterpretation regarding the support provided by the Chongqing government, Zhang responded late Saturday night via his account on the social media platform Douyin. He explained that at that time, he was thinking that, on one hand, he didn’t take money from the government; on the other, to be honest he intended to show off a bit — “look, I can pull off something this cool all on my own.”

He added that “the government only needs to set the stage well, and that would be great; the rest is up to the enterprises to work hard.”

Zhang Xue (center) poses for a photo with his son (right) and motobike racing driver Valentin Debise. Photos: Courtesy of the Evan Bros team

After Chinese motorcycle manufacturer ZXMOTO made history with its first double victory in the World Supersport (WorldSSP) category at the Portuguese round of the Superbike World Championship, a clip from an interview with its founder Zhang Xue has been widely circulated and has led to considerable misinterpretation. In this interview, when asked about the support provided by the Chongqing government, Zhang Xue replied: "not a single cent."

In the video Zhang released on Saturday, when talking about why he chose Chongqing, Zhang said that Chongqing is the place with the richest supporting resources for motorcycles, especially high-performance heavy motorcycles, and it also has an abundant supply of industry talent. 

According to Zhang, around 80 to 90 percent of the engineers and mid-to-senior management at his company come from Chongqing. “Precisely because Chongqing has such fertile soil, we were able to achieve what we have today in just two years,” he noted.

“I was very lucky that ZXMOTO won the championship. In China, as long as you can design something, you can always find excellent suppliers, because we have the most complete range of manufacturing sectors in the world. Even if I hadn’t won the championship this time, there would definitely have been a Li Xue, Chen Xue, or Wang Xue who would have won it for Chinese motorcycles,” Zhang said in the video.

Earlier, People’s Daily said in a commentary titled “Misinterpretation of Zhang Xue's ‘not a single cent’ remark overlooks multidimensional empowerment of government support” that today, government support for businesses has evolved far beyond simple financial aid or material assistance. Instead, it involves building a comprehensive innovation ecosystem, offering both broad-based support and targeted measures. This includes not only direct support such as funding, policy incentives, and government procurement but also indirect support through infrastructure development, business environment optimization, and industrial ecosystem cultivation.

More importantly, the success of a single business, or even an entire industry, should not be viewed narrowly through the lens of a specific location. Only by considering the context of a unified national market can one fully understand the deeper reasons behind the breakthrough success of ZXMOTO, said the article.

Zhang Xue himself is from Central China's Hunan Province. His company has the backing of state-owned capital from Zhejiang Province, carries out R&D and production in Chongqing, and sells its high-end motorcycles across the country and beyond. The success of his company brings together strengths from multiple regions, vividly illustrating China's distinctive strength: diverse local characteristics shine individually, while unified coordination creates collective advantages. A unified national market that ensures the smooth flow of production factors provides the foundation for businesses to compete boldly and pursue growth, per the article.

China's development is a mutual achievement between the stage and its strivers - a two-way journey of devotion. A stage that is sufficiently robust will not obscure the sweat and wisdom of the strivers; likewise, the success of the strivers will not overshadow the nourishment provided by the stage itself, said the article.

With the foundation of China's innovation system and the combined strengths of government and market forces, Zhang Xue's passion will ignite the dreams of more entrepreneurs, and the breakthrough achieved by ZXMOTO will be merely the prelude to the surging tide of innovation sweeping across China, the article noted.

Global Times