New Delhi, March 13 -- A few years ago it would have been hard to imagine Chinese brands making it big in America. Yet today shoppers in Manhattan can pop by the 2,800-square-metre store of Urban Revivo to pick up one of the Chinese retailer's trendy outfits, which are all the rage on TikTok, a short-video app owned by ByteDance, another Chinese company. They can follow that up with a latte from Luckin Coffee, which began opening outlets on the island last year, or an ice cream from Mixue, another Chinese retailer that has recently set up shop.

With each passing year the presence of Chinese business abroad grows stronger, in rich and poor countries alike, and across a widening range of industries. Last year BYD, a Chinese maker of electr...