Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is unfazed by China's slowing economy. 
 
 Even with China growing at its slowest pace in 25 years, Starbucks is planning to open more than one new store a day for the next five years in the world's second largest economy. 
 
 "I think if you look at the 45 year history of our company ... one of the things that we've done really well is that we've always played the long game," Schultz told CNN in an interview in Shanghai on Wednesday. 
 
 By 2021, Starbucks (SBUX) aims to have nearly 5,000 stores across China. 
 
 Related: China's economy holds steady -- but for how long? 
 
 It's been a long road already for the coffee giant in the world's most populous nation, where it opened its first store 17 years ago. 
 
 "We had to educate and teach many Chinese about what coffee was -- the coffee ritual, what a latte was," Schultz said. "So in the early years, we did not make money." 
 
 His critics on Wall Street and elsewhere said Starbucks "was never going to succeed in China," he recalled. 
 
 But his patience paid off. 
 
 "If you look five years ago, most of our business, believe it or not, was expats and tourists in China," he said. "Today, it's mostly Chinese." 
 
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 Schultz expects China to eventually overtake the U.S. as the company's largest market, although he hasn't said exactly when. (It's already No. 2.) 
 
 "One of things I think we've done very well is we've invested significantly ahead of the growth curve -- in people, in systems," he told CNN. "We just finished a fantastic year in China where the results are as strong as they've ever been." 
 
 Such talk is enviable for huge U.S. firms that have failed to get into China -- like Facebook (FB) and Netflix (NFLX) -- or been pushed out -- like Uber and Google (GOOG). 
 
 Schultz says it helps that Starbucks is selling coffee, and not active in a more sensitive market. 
 
 "We're not in a high tech business, so we're not trying to change behavior in terms of technology," he said. 
 
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 Other big American brands that had enjoyed years of success selling food and drink in China are now faring less well. 
 
 KFC, which is owned by Yum Brands (YUM), is spinning off its China business and bringing in outside investors. McDonalds (MCD) is also looking for a partner to take over the franchise of its China stores. 
 
 "They have other challenges ... I can't speak for them," Schultz said, ruling out the possibility of Starbucks following a similar path. 
 
 "Whether we're in a small city or a large city, we think that the way in which we can be successful is if the stores are operated by Starbucks people," he said. "We believe that the future of Starbucks in China is still very early." 
 
 -- Reed Alexander contributed to this report. ||||| Starbucks Corp. sees China surpassing the U.S. as its largest market within a decade as it counts on the country’s affluent consumers to offset stagnant growth in the rest of the world. 
 
 Ramping up its focus on China, Starbucks is opening its biggest cafe in the world in Shanghai on Wednesday. The 30,000 square-feet store -- about half the size of a soccer pitch -- is part of upscale moves championed by founder and Chairman Howard Schultz. Customers at the cavernous new outlet on the West Nanjing Road shopping strip can watch beans being roasted, sample high-end brews and use a Starbucks augmented-reality digital app to interact with the store. 
 
 The roaster also plans to roll out mobile ordering and delivery of drinks and store goods in China, Chief Executive Officer Kevin Johnson said in an interview in Shanghai. The company will team up with a strategic partner to help it with the service, he said. 
 
 Starbucks Roastery in Shanghai. Source: Starbucks Corp. 
 
 The Seattle-based company is homing in on its fastest-growing market as it searches for ways to kick-start sluggish global sales after saturating the U.S. with lattes and cappuccinos. Three years after the company opened its first Roastery on its home turf, Starbucks is testing the larger, upmarket store concept overseas for the first time in China, where it currently has 3,000 sites. 
 
 “It’s obvious to us that the holding power of China for Starbucks is going to be much more significant than the holding power of the U.S.,” Schultz said Tuesday at a briefing to unveil the new cafe. China is on course to be the company’s largest market in less than a decade, he added. 
 
 To read more about Schultz’s upscale push, click here 
 
 China is becoming crucial for Starbucks. Same-store sales gained 8 percent in the country during the most recent quarter, compared with 2 percent globally. Revenue from the Asia-Pacific region accounted for almost 15 percent of Starbucks’ revenue for the fiscal year ended in October. That’s up from 5.5 percent five years earlier. 
 
 The coffee chain would be the latest to jump onto the delivery bandwagon in a country where everything from fresh produce to forklifts can be purchased online and delivered the same day. Starbucks is exploring “a range of options” for delivery, said Johnson, who declined to specify when the service might begin. 
 
 “Having mobile ordering where you can either do a mobile order for pickup in the store or a mobile order to be delivered to you is the next frontier for us,” he said. “The innovation that I see in China is going faster and will be more comprehensive than anything we see in other parts of the world.” 
 
 Separately, the company could team up with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. on projects beyond mobile payment services, Schultz said in an interview. 
 
 “Jack and I have spoken about a lot of different things,” he said referring to Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma, when asked whether the partnership could extend beyond mobile payment services. “The friendship and the shared values we have and their reach, our brand -- there are things that we could do together.” 
 
 Customers in China can pay for Starbucks purchases using the mobile payment service from Alibaba-affiliate Alipay, which the roaster began accepting in September. 
 
 Starbucks expanded its investment in China in July, when it announced plans to buy out the partners in its East China joint venture. The company agreed to acquire the remaining 50 percent of the business in a $1.3 billion transaction, giving it ownership of about 1,300 cafes in Shanghai and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Starbucks, which says it is opening a store every 15 hours in China, plans to have 5,000 cafes on the mainland by 2021. 
 
 Starbucks Roastery in Shanghai. Source: Starbucks Corp. 
 
 Starbucks is betting China’s hunger for luxury goods is transferable to coffee. A standard latte at the coffee chain is already pricier than fresh brews at many local cafes in Shanghai. The demand for premium products -- from autos to yogurt -- is gaining traction as an increasing number of Chinese families cross the income threshold to become affluent. 
 
 “Chinese consumers, especially the younger generation, are looking for things more quality-driven, more unique, that speaks to who they are,” said Jack Chuang, a Shanghai-based partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants who has studied the Chinese coffee market. “For coffee, there’s a certain kind of ‘in-the-know’ from consumers who seek out these good boutique shops.’’ 
 
 Starbucks has said it plans other Roastery cafes in New York, Tokyo and Italy. The concept is part of a broad push upmarket that includes a line of premium coffee called Reserve and cafes to showcase the new brand. Still, rollout has been slowed by high construction costs and trouble finding suitable real estate. 
 
 — With assistance by Angus Whitley, and Rachel Chang
– How many black forest lattes can the Chinese drink? Starbucks is hoping the answer is a lot. CEO Howard Schultz tells CNNMoney the coffee giant is planning to open more than one new store each day in China over the next five years. The projection to have almost 5,000 stores across the country by 2021 comes despite the fact that growth in China has slowed to its lowest levels in a quarter-century. Unphased by that economic forecast, Schultz says Starbucks is looking far into the future. "I think if you look at the 45-year history of our company ... one of the things that we've done really well is that we've always played the long game," Schultz says. He adds that tourists and expats made up the majority of Starbucks customers in China only five years ago. "Today," he says, "it's mostly Chinese. " China is the chain's second-largest market, after the US. Schultz says he expects that standing to flip as more Chinese discover menu items like cranberry white chocolate mochas. When the first Starbucks opened 17 years ago in China, the locals had no idea the addictive value of a cup of Joe—or how much better one could be topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. "We had to educate and teach many Chinese about what coffee was—the coffee ritual, what a latte was," Schultz said. "So in the early years, we did not make money." Other businesses like KFC and McDonald's haven't fared as well in recent times in the world's second-largest economy, and both have sought outside investors, per CNNMoney. (A class-action lawsuit says Starbucks lattes lack milk.)