21 December 2023
Kai Kong Chay, Senior Portfolio Manager, Greater China Equities
Wenlin Li, Senior Portfolio Manager, Greater China Equities
Ben Yu, Head of Equities, Taiwan Region



The mainland China economy has improved throughout 2023 as a result of the government’s positive, pro-growth stance – which should continue to support the country’s economic growth and propel investment opportunities in 2024. Crossing the strait, the Taiwan Region should benefit from major driving forces for the global tech industry.
This 2024 outlook piece highlights four key megatrends (we call them the “4As”) to help investors navigate the evolving Greater China’s investment landscape.
1) Acceleration: Consumption may further improve with mainland China’s pro-growth policy stance.
2) Abroad: Leading mainland Chinese companies are going abroad – another growth engine!
3) Advancement: The artificial intelligence (A.I) supply chain in Greater China (especially the Taiwan Region) should continue to see robust growth in 2024.
4) Automation: Mainland China’s aged population1 should present higher demand for automation.
From a sector perspective, we believe that mainland China should benefit from the following key areas despite macro and geopolitical headwinds:
1) Traditional tech:
The global smartphone market is expected to recover in 2024, which could trigger more A.I applications. With the adoption of edge A.I2 expected by 2025, smartphone original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), memory manufacturers, and system-on-a-chip (SoC) component makers will be the key beneficiaries.
2) A.I
Mainland China’s internet platform companies remain active with computing technology and A.I investments. We believe mainland China is well-positioned to capture opportunities from the upstream to the downstream semiconductor supply chains (especially packaging and testing) amid central government support3.
3) Advanced manufacturing
We are positive on the expected capital expenditure recovery in the industrial general equipment in early 2024, domestic substitution of industrial advanced manufacturing (from auto-related segments, automation, industrial robotics, and rotary vector reducers to X-ray machines), and overseas expansion of domestic industrial component companies (OEMs and electric vehicle (EV) component manufacturers).
4) EV
The export growth of EV models is a bright spot while building the EV supply chain overseas is also generating cost efficiencies for leading mainland Chinese EV players. EV component manufacturers could be side beneficiaries, riding on their “technical know-how” and supply-chain experience.
5) Healthcare
Negative factors related to the anti-corruption campaign in 2023 have largely been priced in. For 2024, we believe the sector should see brighter upside on the back of (1) mainland China’s pursuit of innovation ranging from high-tech to healthcare, (2) strong innovative pipelines of domestic biotech companies and (3) potential recovery in global biotech investments as interest rates decline. We favour pharma companies with (1) strong future pipelines, (2) global opportunities and (3) in-licensing opportunities with global players.
For the Taiwan Region, the next things in global tech industry for the new year would include (1) continued growth of A.I development, (2) recovery of the global smartphone market and (3) recovery of the PC market. We believe its domestic companies will benefit the most in the following areas:
1) Foundries
The growth of foundries could ride on the recovery of the consumer electronics market and A.I development. Going into 2024, foundries may benefit from (1) growing localisation trend and increased demand from domestic suppliers and (2) A.I demand as more advanced node capacity is required.
2) Integrated circuit (IC) design services4
We favour IC design service providers that are third-party, one-stop-shop design “consultants” who assist with front-end/back-end design and manage the fabrication process on the foundry side, given Taiwanese companies’ marketing-leading position and potential growth of customed IC design.
3) Server hardware supply chain
The Taiwan Region has major hardware companies exposed to various parts of the server hardware supply chain. We believe that server market growth will further improve in 2024, driven by growth recovery of regular servers and ongoing strength of A.I servers. Over the longer term, various sub-sectors of the A.I server market should see the fastest growth among all components.
4) Networking switches
The ongoing migration from 100G to 400G should continue in the coming years as cloud customers look to reduce costs. Globally, there are only a handful of white box switch vendors, and the leading players should benefit from this trend.
Download the full version (16 pages)
1 14.9% of mainland China’s population comprises people aged 65 and above.
2 Edge A.I is the deployment of AI applications in devices throughout the physical world. It’s called Edge A.I because the A.I computation occurs near the user at the edge of the network, close to where the data is located, rather than centrally in a cloud computing facility or private data centre. February 17, 2022. Nvidia.
3 The China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, known as the Big Fund, is set to launch a US$40 billion investment fund backed by the Chinese government to support the manufacturing strategies of domestic semiconductor companies. China to double down on push to be self-reliant in tech. Reuters, 5 March 2023.
4 HSBC Report, November 2023
3287899
2026 Mid-Year Outlook Series: GEDI
Against a highly uncertain backdrop in the first half of 2026, Manulife’s Global Equity Diversified Income (GEDI) Fund (‘the Fund’) posted resilient performance with relatively lower volatility. This result was driven by the Fund’s four investment pillars, which favour an income-centric approach, coupled with global diversification across growth, value, and income equities. In this 2026 Mid-Year Outlook, Paul Kalogirou, Head of Client Portfolio Management, Asia & Global Multi-Asset Solutions, explains how the Fund’s unique structure allows for consistent income generation and potential upside across the market cycle, while also identifying key opportunities and risks for the second half of the year.
2026 Mid-year outlook: Global Semiconductor
The semiconductor sector remains a key enabler of the global economy, underpinning artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and electrification. As highlighted in our earlier insights, it represents a broad ecosystem supported by structural demand and real infrastructure investment. Following strong year-to-date performance, we see growing conviction that momentum can extend into the second half of 2026 and into 2027, driven by earnings strength, sustained capital investment, and early-stage AI adoption.
2026 Mid-year Outlook Series: Diversified Real Assets
Global supply chains are resetting under deglobalisation and geopolitics, shifting from global efficiency to more expensive regional resilience, embedding higher structural costs. At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a new demand driver, accelerating investment in power, infrastructure, and materials. Against this backdrop of structurally higher inflation and dual demand pressures – from both supply-chain rewiring and AI capital expenditure – we believe real assets may play an increasingly important role in portfolios, offering exposure to long-term secular growth and AI trends.
2026 Mid-Year Outlook Series: GEDI
Against a highly uncertain backdrop in the first half of 2026, Manulife’s Global Equity Diversified Income (GEDI) Fund (‘the Fund’) posted resilient performance with relatively lower volatility. This result was driven by the Fund’s four investment pillars, which favour an income-centric approach, coupled with global diversification across growth, value, and income equities. In this 2026 Mid-Year Outlook, Paul Kalogirou, Head of Client Portfolio Management, Asia & Global Multi-Asset Solutions, explains how the Fund’s unique structure allows for consistent income generation and potential upside across the market cycle, while also identifying key opportunities and risks for the second half of the year.
2026 Mid-year outlook: Global Semiconductor
The semiconductor sector remains a key enabler of the global economy, underpinning artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and electrification. As highlighted in our earlier insights, it represents a broad ecosystem supported by structural demand and real infrastructure investment. Following strong year-to-date performance, we see growing conviction that momentum can extend into the second half of 2026 and into 2027, driven by earnings strength, sustained capital investment, and early-stage AI adoption.
2026 Mid-year Outlook Series: Diversified Real Assets
Global supply chains are resetting under deglobalisation and geopolitics, shifting from global efficiency to more expensive regional resilience, embedding higher structural costs. At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) is emerging as a new demand driver, accelerating investment in power, infrastructure, and materials. Against this backdrop of structurally higher inflation and dual demand pressures – from both supply-chain rewiring and AI capital expenditure – we believe real assets may play an increasingly important role in portfolios, offering exposure to long-term secular growth and AI trends.