Overview

Thales provides innovative solutions for China’s infrastructures (backbone for the country’s growth). With more than 30 years' development in China, Thales has been already a trusted partner for Chinese aviation and urban rail transportation industries. In China, Thales today employs 1300 employees, 95% of the staff being of Chinese nationality.

Thales’ strategy is to boost its local presence partnering with local players. In China, Thales is developing through local Joint Ventures.
 

Thales develops Innovation Hubs around the world. These Hubs serve as structures for collaborative innovation and combine new design methods, simulation tools and visualizations in order to co-create a truly differentiated offer with ‘customer-users’, ultimately designing better products. In June 2014, Thales inaugurated an Innovation Hub in Hong Kong. A true incubator of ideas for academic, government and industry representatives, the Hong Kong Innovation Hub will focus on the concept of Smart Cities, working specifically in the transport and security domains. In 2016, Thales is developing a new Innovation Hub in its Beijing office focusing on aerospace and signaling systems for railways.

To prepare the future, relations with Universities and Research Centers are key.  To that end, Thales has developed several academic partnerships in China.

Key Figures
30

A presence for over 30 years

1300

1300 employees to date in China

4

key Joint Ventures and strategic partners

Local Cooperation & Innovation

Local cooperation

Thales’ strategy is to boost its local presence partnering with local players. In China, Thales is developing also through local Joint Ventures

  • 1996: Creation of STET, the most famous radiography devices manufacturer and distributor in China, mainly manufacturing 6 and 9 inch X-ray Image Intensifiers and Radiological Imaging Units.
  • 2007: Creation of BEST, Joint Venture to provide innovative and reliable air traffic control systems and services to meet Chinese ATM customers’ needs.
  • 2011: Creation of Thales SAIC Transportation (TST), Joint Venture in Shanghai to provide advanced SelTrac CBTC signalling solutions for metro projects. TST today has local R&D and brings local innovations to the market.
  • 2013: Creation of Thales CETC Avionics (TCA), Joint Venture in Chengdu to produce the IFE (In-Flight Entertainment system, software and equipment for single aisle aircraft and for the COMAC C919 aircraft. TCA brings a Chinese solution for the local customers.Committed to the long term development in China, Thales hopes that our local partnerships could not only expand the business in China, but also promote its mutual growth in the global market.

Innovation

Thales develops Innovation Hubs around the world. These Hubs serve as structures for collaborative innovation and combine new design methods, simulation tools and visualisations in order to co-create a truly differentiated offer with ‘customer-users’, ultimately designing better products.

Innovation Hubs

  • In June 2014, Thales inaugurated an Innovation Hub in Hong Kong. A true incubator of ideas for academic, government and industry representatives, the Hong Kong Innovation Hub will focus on the concept of Smart Cities, working specifically in the transport and security domains.
  • In 2016, Thales is developing a new Innovation Hub in its Beijing office focusing on aerospace and signaling systems for railways.

Academic partnerships
To prepare the future, relation with Universities and research centres is key. Thales has developed several academic partnerships in China:

  • Civil Aviation University of China (CAUC)
  • Beijing Jiao-Tong University (BJTU)
  • Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA)
  • Tongji University
  • Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST)
  • University of Hong Kong (HKU)
  • Chinese University of Hong Kong (CU)
  • Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) 
 Local talents

People are the most important asset for Thales. To succeed in global marketplace, and in order to continuously innovate, Thales considers diversity has a key driver for a global growth.

Now Thales in China employs around 1300 people with 18 different nationalities and out of which 28% are female employees as the group is promoting diversity and inclusion.

Thales has actively engaged with universities across the country especially in cities where it operates (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chengdu and HongKong) through internship program, scholarship, research program, seminars, or teaching exchanges etc. In 2016 for the first time Thales introduced “Project Arduino” to China with 6 universities participated (Project Arduino is Thales global on-campus competition).