What is China + 1?

China + 1 (noun)

A business strategy in which companies diversify their supply base and reduce reliance on China by establishing operations in at least one other country. 

Since the mid-1980s, China has been a source of low-cost labor and materials for U.S. companies, with the trend accelerating in the late 1990s and 2000s amid China’s economic reforms and the country’s 2001 entry into the World Trade Organization. But the cost of labor in China began to increase in the mid-2010s. Many global businesses began hedging their bets by establishing a “plus one” location for sourcing and production outside of China.

“C + 1” helps organizations better navigate rising labor costs, supply chain disruptions, and escalating geopolitical tensions while opening up access to new markets and customer bases, according to Yanchong Karen Zheng, an associate professor of operations management at MIT Sloan.

Amid these changes, Thailand is pursuing a plan to become the economic and innovation hub for Southeast Asia. The government has established the Eastern Economic Corridor to attract foreign investment and make the country a strategic gateway to the broader Asia region. And in March of 2025, Thailand’s Chulalongkorn University officially launched a dual engineering-management graduate degree program, modeled after and in collaboration with MIT’s Leaders for Global Operations program.

The new program aims to cultivate leaders able to merge engineering expertise, operational excellence, and business acumen to solve industry challenges, drive innovation, and meet the emerging needs of global industries in the region, said Zheng, who is the management faculty co-director of MIT’s LGO program.

Chula Partners with MIT LGO to Launch Chula-LGO: A Master's Program in Engineering and Business