By He Yin, People’s Daily
On Nov. 10, the 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE) concluded. The six-day event attracted 4,108 companies from 138 countries and regions, featuring 461 new products, technologies and services, and recording $83.49 billion in one-year intended deals.
At the opening ceremony of the first CIIE in 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping noted that openness, innovation and inclusiveness have become the hallmark of Shanghai. They are also a vivid reflection of China in the new era and its commitment to development and progress. He stressed that it is important for all countries to open wider, pursue innovative growth, pursue inclusive development, and actively champion openness and cooperation in order to secure shared development.
Over the past eight years, the principles of openness, innovation and inclusiveness have remained central to the CIIE, reinforcing its role as a vital platform for promoting an open world economy and fostering common development.
As the world’s first national-level import-themed expo, the CIIE reflects China’s proactive approach to market openness and its expanding commitment to international cooperation. The event has grown in both scale and diversity, increasingly facilitating mutually beneficial partnerships.
According to the World Openness Report 2025 released at this year’s Hongqiao International Economic Forum, China’s openness has continued to expand despite a global trend toward contraction. In 2024, while the global openness index declined by 0.05 percent from 2023, China’s openness index rose by 0.5 percent. Between 1990 and 2024, China’s openness index advanced from 0.5891 to 0.7634, an increase of nearly 30 percent in 35 years.
Hamid Rashid, former chief of the Global Economic Monitoring Branch at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, noted that at a time when global openness faces mounting challenges, China’s continued expansion of opening up sets a benchmark for building a more open world economy.
This year’s CIIE featured cutting-edge innovations across different sectors, including low-altitude economy, humanoid robots, smart healthcare, and green, low-carbon technologies. These global debuts highlight China’s evolving role as not only a key consumer market but also a critical hub for innovation and application.
International participants commented that China is not only a vast market, but also a vibrant hub for innovation and cooperation. With its flexible innovation ecosystem and diverse consumer demand, China is increasingly recognized as one of the world’s most vibrant innovation hubs.
Multinational companies are increasingly leveraging the CIIE platform to integrate key segments of their innovation chains into China and to strengthen collaboration in support of the country’s high-quality development trajectory.
In today’s deeply interconnected world, inclusiveness, mutual benefit and shared prosperity are the right path forward. Enterprises from 123 Belt and Road partner countries participated in this year’s CIIE, increasing 23.1 percent year on year, while those from least developed countries totaled 163, up 23.5 percent.
Following China’s extension of zero-tariff treatment to all 53 African countries with diplomatic ties, the number of African exhibitors grew by 80 percent this year. For the first time, the Hongqiao International Economic Forum hosted discussions on enhancing economic resilience and sustainable agricultural development in the Global South. These efforts aimed at reinforcing the development rights and amplifying the voices of developing countries.
As Dorothy Tembo, deputy executive director of the International Trade Center, highlighted that the CIIE enables small and medium-sized enterprises from more countries to share China’s vast market opportunities, facilitating a more inclusive and equitable distribution of development benefits worldwide.
As a vital platform for advancing open cooperation and promoting global economic growth, the CIIE continues to reflect China’s enduring commitment to sharing opportunities and pursuing common development with the world.
Looking ahead, China will remain committed to high-level opening up, advancing development and innovation, promoting win-win cooperation through openness, and creating new opportunities for the world through the new achievements of Chinese modernization.
