Chinese companies know all about zouchuqu – going out – and staking a claim in global markets whatever the cost. Take ZTE: the telecoms equipment maker has destroyed its own margins in its pursuit of the cut-throat global smartphone market. Energy group Cnooc, meanwhile, has offered a hefty premium for Canada’s Nexen, even though the deal is unlikely to add value. Both companies have something to learn from Lenovo.

Yesterday, the PC maker said that in the past three months it increased revenues 35 per cent from a year earlier, and widened its paper-thin margins enough to increase operating profit by nearly 50 per cent. Not that Lenovo is climbing the value chain – unit growth is offsetting falling prices. Instead, the pop in profit is all about cost control. Its expense ratio fell 7 percentage points from a year earlier, to 10 per cent. Good work.

And there is more work to be done. While Lenovo’s share in the PC market is now just short of global leader Hewlett-Packard’s, its operating margins are a quarter of HP’s. Progress may take time, though. Developed markets have driven Lenovo’s recent growth, due in part to acquisitions of Japan’s NEC and Germany’s Medion. The next leg of global growth will come largely from the lower-margin emerging markets.