Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Roundtable.
Hello, welcome to Roundtable where we serve up piping hot debates on the issues that sizzle in China and beyond.
I'm Niu Henlin.
In a time when global supply chains are being redefined, platforms like the China International Import Expo remind us that openness remains one of China's most powerful ideas.
From streamlined customs measures to first release products and green innovations.
Each year, the expo tells a deeper story of how connection, not isolation, drives growth in an uncertain world.
In today's show, let's take a look at this year's CIIE and find out all about the highlights.
Now grab your virtual compass and follow us to the heart of the discussion.
If you have ever wandered the halls of Shanghai Import Expo, you know it's more than just an exhibition.
It feels like walking through a world condensed into one space.
Each booth tells a story of collaboration, of ambition, of discovery.
From November 5th to 10th, Shanghai once again hosts the China International Import Expo.
It's the eighth time and the city is already in full swing banners, pop-ups and special events happening everywhere citywide.
Shanghai is ready to welcome the world once again.
And behind it all lies a bigger question.
How does openness continue to shape China's dialogue with the world?
To answer all that questions, let's first talk a little bit more about CIIE 2025.
What are the things that we must know about the expo?
Yeah, it's CIA 2025 already.
Jeez, like this time last year, I was walking my legs to the point I can't walk anymore.
I was going to say you were there last year.
I was and yeah, I was trying to get as much resources and interesting facts and photos and interviews as as much as possible to be showcased on roundtable.
And now i now i remember because we played audio clips from your time down there and i think you were learning about cars.
Oh, my goodness, it was with the ford.
Ford car company people you met and you were learning about the inside of the interior of their new vehicle or something.
Right before i went went to shanghai.
I asked the team Steve, more specifically.
I'm losing clue on what I should be reporting.
Do you have any suggestions, Steve?
Cars.
Cars.
Really?
That was a selfish answer, though.
I didn't know that.
And then I ended up wandering around in the cars booth, around all different car brands, SUVs everywhere and car companies from inside and outside of China, having no clue of what I should be saying, since I'm zero like I'm zero background nor interest back then to introduce cars.
But anyhow, this year.
But you did a really good job.
And because in these expos you get to see a lot of new product, new technology, and many, many companies would decide to release their latest product, as this provides a really good platform.
We'll talk a little bit about what are some other new releases this year.
Thank you very much, by the way, for being so kind.
So CIE 2025 it's of the biggest scale ever and it's starting since November, the 5th to the 10th, right there in Shanghai.
So this year, there are 155 participating countries and regions and international organizations.
There are over 700 trade delegations and four 449,500 registered professional visitors this year.
Also, there are 4,108 foreign companies exhibiting, which is also making another record high.
Then there are 290 Fortune 500 companies participating, which is, of course, another record high.
And then the exhibition area.
Gosh you guys have, I think only you've been there in previous years before, right?
Yes, The first one and the sixth one, I guess.
Yes.
And so you have a clue on how gigantic of an area that whole exhibition area is covering.
Over 430,000 square meters.
Let me guess, a record high.
Yes.
So yeah, as always, it's organized by China's Ministry of Commerce and the Shanghai Municipal Government.
And based on my personal experience experience what I have seen and heard from last year and also what I've been reading about CIIE 2025 earlier this morning.
It's just such a place that gathers businesses and also curious visitors from all around the world and providing a stage for all participants from around the world to showcase their products.
Many individual businesses, like one that I interviewed last year from Venezuela.
They're just one small local seafood business.
And it's not like they get international call every single day.
But they're sitting at that booth of the country Venezuela in the country exhibition hall.
I think that's what it's called.
That business owner, a very kind gentleman.
He told me he's got more order than the past six months within that five days.
So that's something that's really inspiring to see how it's like bringing a stage and just sharing things with people from around the world. just good for business and good for trading in general worldwide.
I was on the Canada website this morning and they're going to break it up, according to the website, into seven exhibition areas.
I'm not sure if that's a record high or not, but they're going to have consumer goods, medical equipment and health care, food and agriculture, automobiles, intelligent industry, trade-in services, innovation, economics, incubation and from watching the videos I have never been there myself but from watching the videos there's just so much to take in I love the way you put that in your home when you said it's the world condensed and there's just so much to see and all the products are really diverse and there's so many new cool trendy things there on display as well so it's a really really big opportunity for people who are interested, but also, as you said, that Venezuelan company and companies alike, an opportunity for them to say hello to the Chinese market.
Yes.
From the very beginning this has been a platform for overseas because it's the import expo, mainly for overseas companies to come to China and see the Chinese market and find an opening and showcase their products.
And like Yusheng has mentioned, it's not always the major...
290 Fortune 500 companies, but it's always or there are many of the small companies, small shops coming to China and finding opportunity.
I've seen the lovely, lovely example of a little brand called Warm Camel.
Their booth started to be showcased in 2018.
At that time, they've got a nine square meter little booth in China.
2018 during the first ECIE, and now it's 54 square meters.
Yes, and they have opened six stores in Shanghai, Xiamen, and other places.
It's a little toy, a camel-shaped toy, and sometimes an alpaca-shaped toy.
It's very, very lovely.
And the alpaca one.
There is another merchant from Peru and he said that because of the expo, he he was able to mention, or he was able to help more than 200 Peruvian families escape poverty.
And he has even take that story to United Nations.
And it has been listed as one of the 200 developing stories local community, finding a way to do business and giving back to the community kind of story.
And it's very lovely.
Yeah, I'm not sure if the same brand, but I actually bought three scarves from them last year.
It's from Peru, right?
You were on a little shopping trip while you were working, too.
That's awesome.
Yeah, but it really is.
It's a global marketplace and a lot of those companies.
You said that the Warm Camel exhibition was there for the first time back in 2018 and a lot of companies are making their first appearance, so it's really exciting for them.
I'm sure yes, and the platform also provides interesting little shortcut, even because when you do business, it's hard to do cross-border business there are so many different hurdles need to jump paperwork, paperwork and you need to find a way to ship your product to the targeted market.
And if you are talking about not the kind of product that can easily be transported in a container, I'm talking about milk.
In 2017, a New Zealand milk company and milk products.
When they entered Chinese market, they faced the problem of expiring really really soon after listing, because the imported fresh milk had a shelf life of only 15 days and the imported Clarence took seven to eight days.
Imagine how problematic that would be for the company.
They brought milk but sold butter.
If they can do that, it could be a solution.
But another solution was provided by the first, the CIE.
What they did is that they managed to find ways to solve the paperwork and everything and they managed to shorten the period into 72 hours.
And after attending, participating in seven consecutive expos...
This one is the eighth one, and they're also coming.
They have launched new products, gained market insights and now the sales of fresh milk are 26 times higher than before in the Chinese market, with offline distribution in 25 provinces and online coverage on more than 90 of e-commerce platforms here in China.
Shows you what this platform is capable of doing for these companies.
Precisely.
And we mentioned that this is not only a platform that can provide opportunities to small and medium businesses, to huge companies but having problem getting into Chinese market.
But it's now becoming a platform for communication, for different companies to show off their latest products and saying I've got this something new.
And now you all gather here.
Let me show you what I've got.
Yes.
Speaking of new products, there are in general 461 new products and technologies and service that's making their debut this year.
Highlights include cutting-edge sectors like the low-altitude economy, such as drones and air taxis, humanoid robots, of course, all incorporated with AI services provided, I guess.
Next generation information technology and also AI and green low carbon innovations.
Some eye-catching examples include wearable exoskeletons for walking assistance and vertical takeoff and landing aircrafts, showing just how big of a potential for let's imagine flying to work in the near future.
I want all of them.
Especially in the car traffic jam.
So many cool products.
And then you've got the other side of things too.
Healthcare multinationals are bringing treatments for chronic and rare diseases.
There's a lot of first-time exhibitors from niche sectors debuting their first products too.
And all of those together show how this platform CIIE, is turning the huge market that is China into kind of a you could call it a testing ground, I think, and almost like an application hub for global innovation.
So many different industries are covered.
And again, it's kind of like the hello, here we are.
Hello, here we are.
Type moment, right?
What is the most eye-catching hello moment? here we are kind of product in your opinion, Yuxuan.
Gosh, that's also the biggest reason why I wish I'm there this year is because of this Terminal, Cute Paul, which is the pet industry pavilion making its debut at the CIE this year.
Last year, the pet industry pavilion is literally a pavilion.
It's just a small area, perhaps a bit bigger than the studio we're sitting in right now, but that's it.
But this year, it's It's bringing together 16 leading pet brands from around the world, showcasing both scale and diversity in all kinds of pet using products, such as globally recognized favorites like Royal Canin, a favorite product. cat food dog food brand from i think it's from france and also oven baked that's from canada and then to rising chinese brands as well with very popular international ambitions such as p-dan and pet kit all very familiar names for the stuff that i've been piling up for my cats i think you could drop me off in the food zone for about three days pick me up after after it's finished cat food no the food food food human Yes, Yuxuan mentioned there are many professional visitors for these kind of exhibitions, for sure, because they are here to sell and to purchase and to compare and to show off because, you know, they have their own products, they're looking for things.
But as mass or non-very professional visitors, you can also go and enjoy a little bit.
And we're going to explain a little bit about how Shanghai is turning the entire city into a huge market that you can
But I have to share what I've got.
That is the one thing that I found really interesting, and it is making its debut here in China in this expo.
It is a little intragastric balloon.
It's a non-surgical weight loss device that you can put in your stomach.
Yes, it fills part of the stomach to reduce appetite and slow digestion, staying in the stomach for up to one year.
It is suitable for patients with a BMI of 30 to 50, so really obesity patients.
And this device enhances weight loss outcomes and stability.
It fills a technical gap in China's, well, in this field in China.
Because this year we mentioned, this year we are looking at, we're being more aware of what weight loss and weight management, because gradually we started to understand how obesity or overweight can cause a lot of chronic disease, a lot of problems to human body.
And I'm not talking about the young slim girls who always complain about I'm not pretty enough, I'm not slim enough, I need to lose more weight.
I'm talking about those who really have a problem and when it comes to weight loss, sometimes this well.
Especially men can look very strong and slim and fit, yet having too much fat in their uh intestines and And it's really unhealthy.
And there are many, many clinics opening around the country that are dealing with that problem.
And I think cutting off part of the stomach is a used to be very drastic but now much safer and a less invasive procedure.
But with this new balloon, I think that kind of invasiveness is not necessary anymore.
And you didn't know this product existed.
No, no.
But thanks to CIIE.
You know exactly what it's all about.
I'm more impressed and more drawn to perhaps the lesser known exhibitions.
I'm talking about the LDC exhibition zone.
And this is a first as well for CIIE.
They have this special area for products from the least developed countries.
Those are the LDCs.
And they have free booths and policy support for 37 LDC exhibitors to help them access the Chinese market.
So this year there's 163 companies from such countries that are participating, and that's an almost 24 increase from last year, which in itself is great news.
Some examples would be Rwandan chili peppers.
I've never tried one of those before.
Ethiopian coffee is represented.
Nepal's cashmere, Benin's pineapples have already become a household favorite in China.
In fact, you lined up for some of Benin's dried pineapples last year, you were telling me.
Yeah, they were having such a beautiful sheer blue pavilion that at the very front of it gives dried pineapple samples for people to taste and it's really popular.
Dozens of us were lining up.
Many of us were just media workers as well, just wandering off to that corner waiting and see if it can be our lunch.
Just waiting there and just A few people before me.
That's when the African lady, the Benin lady, called for a pause because they ran out of samples.
Too popular.
They want to keep the rest of their stock for sale later.
And she even passed by a QR code telling us if you're interested in trying, please visit, scan this, we can make sure it delivers to your door.
That's cool.
What a great learning experience though because, I mean, I'd never heard of Benin this morning.
I didn't know how to pronounce it, and I found out that it's a West African country between Nigeria and Ghana and Togo.
To the west, to the east, excuse me and it has.
It has one of the youngest populations in the world 65 of its population is under 25 years old.
I was laughing because Steve was totally mesmerized by the country and he took a lot of time learning about the country.
I watched a documentary.
It was 30 minutes long this morning and I dedicated a large part of my morning to learning about Benin.
I could go on and on.
They have over 40 ethnic groups.
Each has its own language.
They had a group of female warriors in their history called the Dahomey Amazons, and they had significant power and influence in the region's history.
And that's the funny thing.
For a lot of Chinese people, no matter if they are the regular visitors or professional visitors in CIA.
They are learning about the country people, the world they've never heard of, they didn't know they're really interested in.
And this platform is becoming not only a platform for commerce but also cultural exchanges.
And back to the pineapples.
If you're wondering why they're pineapples are so good from Benin.
Their country is shaped like a rectangle from top to bottom.
It's a long, narrow country.
And in the southern part, it's very humid and warm.
And pineapples require that type of climate to grow.
And that's why Benin is famous for its pineapples.
Really, really cool.
That concludes my presentation on Benin.
And that's the thing.
For CIA.
It has been providing different types of preferential policies to these least developed countries for quite a long time.
But this year, they're taking it up a notch.
Yeah, this year, like Steve mentioned, they're providing this very specific area dedicated to the LDCs, the least developed countries.
That's called the LDC exhibition zone.
Even though this specific zone is kind of new this year, it's definitely not the first time that the CIA welcomes and encourages the LDCs to join, because all the way back in 2022, the event already started offering free booths and tax benefits to exhibitors from the least developed countries.
And that's when that's from my last year's research when cashews from Guinea-Bissau that's in western Africa was introduced to the Chinese market and also, in the meantime, helping local farmers who grows cashew to earn a profit.
I want to talk a little bit about what you talked about before the New Zealand milk company who brought a product that had a short shelf life.
And when you bring a product into a new country, customs can take a long time, right?
But what they do for an event like this?
For the CIE service, they have service windows that are opened to guide exhibitors in advance.
And what they do is they collect their needs and they streamline their approvals.
So CIE, they green channel a lot of these things to speed up the clearance for imported exhibits.
For example and we'll use New Zealand as an example again this is at Wusong Port for their imported goods from African wines and teas and dried fruits.
Yes to New Zealand honey and juices.
Those are being processed under dedicated supervision and logistics tracking, and this matters because it cuts the transport time from a day, for example, to a half an hour and it simplifies the paperwork by over 50, and so what it allows is for this seamless, if you want to call it a pre-show rehearsal or a post-show return for exhibits.
I'll give you another specific example.
There's a jewelry brand called Vittoria and they benefited directly because they moved 444 bonded exhibits worth about a million US dollars via this new route and they expanded its market reach and all the while they were saving that cost.
So this is really, really beneficial because for these bonded goods, it allows them to kind of fast-track their appearance at the exhibition.
But then if they don't sell, for example, then they just go back from where they came, without any duty or anything like that.
So it's a big, big advantage for these companies.
That's also why, as the CIE approaches to an end, every year a lot of the businesses they're opening for discounts on what they showcase in the booths.
But to just add up a little bit on that, I specifically checked how long they usually take in Shanghai, among those ports, how long the clearance of customs usually take.
It can take up from two to three days, up till two weeks, over two weeks, depending on the type of cargo and also the specific safety check required.
But now with the facilitated and sped up kind of process, Totally saves a lot of time.
No milk going bad this year, I'm sure.
And also for tax service.
There's the Shanghai Taxation Bureau that's opening a CIE fast track service system that's focusing on multilingual and digital convenience.
For example, in Qingpu District in the western side of Shanghai, where the CIE main venue is located, there are self-service taxis, tax refund terminals added at key shopping areas, just helping people, tourists or businesses to just process that faster as well.
You know, there's another fun detail that is for these companies.
If you find Chinese market, a really good market, you want to enter.
And through this platform, you can even get your patent being lawful In China as well.
So you get a fast track in signing a patent, especially for the designing kind of companies.
You design the pattern on your bag or a different shape of your clothes.
And that patent can be registered in the Chinese market faster.
And also through the platform you get to put your product on the virtual shelves of all the e-commerce e-commerce platforms in China faster.
Some other policies that merchants are taking advantage of here on this platform.
Besides that, any other things that we're interested in and we want to take a look for this year's CIIE.
I think the platforms not the platforms but the programs that they have for seeing the city while they are there.
The visitors are kind of cool.
So CIIE is just, what, five, I guess six days in total, right?
But of course, when you have that many people coming in to Shanghai, well then the whole city becomes a CIIE experience, if you want to call it that.
So they're offering discounts to people, so exhibitors and also guests.
They can unlock over 80 exclusive benefits.
They can get 50 off discounts at scenic spots around the city, including tour routes and art spaces and landmarks, and they can get free rides on sightseeing buses, which is pretty cool.
I've never taken this.
The city's got a popular Route 71 bus apparently, and there are trolley lines that connect 14 different must-see cultural landmarks from around the city.
That's included.
Hotels are in on it as well.
They've got packages.
They've got film-themed tea, opportunities to eat and drink and heritage walks and local performing arts experiences.
So many fun things to do.
There's so many things to do, and they're organizing it so well for the people who are visiting.
Yeah and folks, if you're lucky enough to be in Shanghai right now and if the registration panel still opens, i highly recommend just ready to take a registration and just walk in to the cie venue, walk around and see if there's anything interesting.
I've seen bunches and bunches of people doing live stream, like on social media, um channels, just live streaming themselves, walking around and look this is um the, the salted fish from Sweden and look that's the pineapple from Benin and look that's seafood from Venezuela.
So it's a tour.
It's a three days tour at least.
That's totally worth it.
Yes,
And if you got the chance to go inside the China Pavilion, you can see exhibits such as the CR450 high-speed train model.
You can see the lunar search-based models.
You can see Chang'e 5 lunar soil samples naked eye, 3D and 6G.
Different types of applications.
Brain-computer interface platforms.
All these are demonstrated there as well.
So like Yuchen said, it's Definitely also very much enjoyable for regular visitors as well.
So, from trade policies to green supply chains, from startups to global giants, the conversations born at the CIIE ripple far beyond just Shanghai.
