China recently unveiled its 2019 list of the top 500 Chinese companies, showing the country's momentum of high-quality development.

The new list was jointly published by the China Enterprise Confederation (CEC) and China Enterprise Directors Association.

The list showed the combined revenue of 79.1 trillion yuan in 2018, up 11.1 percent from the previous year.

The combined net profits of all 500 enterprises amounted to 3.5 trillion yuan in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 10.3 percent.

Another highlight was the country's investment in research and development (R&D). 426 of the 500 companies reported a total of 976.5 billion yuan investment in R&D, up 21.7 percent from the previous year.

More companies are from the manufacturing and service industry, showing upgraded industrial structure, said Zhu Hongren, the CEC standing vice president.

The new list also indicated that China's largest companies have moved up to the medium and high end of the industrial chain, said Li Jin, a researcher with the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business.

Li added that thanks to an enhanced innovation capacity boost, Chinese companies have improved their international influence, with a greater say in relevant international standards.

Among the list, a total of 340 companies participated in the development of 1,905 international standards, with the telecommunications service industry reporting the most outstanding performance.

Besides, on this year's Fortune Global 500 list, the number of Chinese companies surpassed the United States for the first time.