Two years after China unveiled a sweeping plan to rebuild Silk Road trade links with Europe and Asia, machinery maker XCMG Group has opened a factory in Uzbekistan, sent 300 staff abroad and set ambitious goals to expand overseas.

XCMG's foreign venture piggybacks on China's bold attempt to extend its global influence through financing infrastructure projects in 65 nations that are home to two-thirds of humanity, and at the same time win new markets for companies weighed down by profit-crushing overcapacity at home.

"This is China's grand strategy," said Hanson Liu, assistant president at Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group, which aims to grow overseas income from 15 percent of total revenue in 2014 to more than 30 percent in the next five years.