BEIJING, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The ninth edition of the China International Import Expo (CIIE), China's flagship buying platform, opened in Shanghai on Thursday, one day after the 140th Canton Fair, the country's premier export showcase, concluded in Guangzhou. Held back-to-back, the two events offer a fresh lens to examine China's foreign trade.
DUAL FAIRS REFLECT CHINA'S TRADE FOOTPRINT
The numbers of overseas companies and industry heavyweights attending the 9th CIIE are set to reach record highs this year. More than 300 Fortune Global 500 companies and industry leaders are expected to participate, marking a record high, while over 2,000 companies will be exhibiting for the first time, according to organizers.
This year's expo has attracted a record 4,142 overseas exhibitors from 148 countries and regions. In total, 162 countries, regions and international organizations are participating, said China's Ministry of Commerce.
On the banks of the Pearl River in south China, a steady stream of orders at the Canton Fair served as evidence of the robust global demand fueling China's export performance.
China's total goods imports and exports reached 39.94 trillion yuan (about 5.95 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first three quarters of 2026, with exports at 23.2 trillion yuan, up 16.4 percent year on year, and imports at 16.74 trillion yuan, a 22.3-percent year-on-year increase, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
THE STORY BEHIND TRADE FIGURES
Trade is not simple arithmetic. Behind the surging trade figures lies a long, interwoven division of labor across global supply chains. A country that is more efficient in a given industry, with more complete supporting capacity and faster delivery, will naturally attract orders.
Look beyond the figures, and the fuller picture comes into focus: the surplus is recorded in China, but the gains are shared beyond its borders.
The distribution of gains becomes clearer when a product's value chain is laid out. Vehicles built at Tesla's Shanghai plant, many of them shipped directly to Europe and Asia-Pacific markets, are all counted as Chinese exports. This happens every day, as foreign firms operating in China produce for the world.
In the first half of 2026, foreign-invested enterprises accounted for nearly 30 percent of China's exports to the European Union, close to 40 percent of exports to the Republic of Korea, and more than 30 percent to emerging markets such as Mexico and Vietnam, according to customs data.
Foreign firms contributed 27 percent of China's total exports in 2025, meaning roughly three in every ten goods shipped from China came from a foreign-funded factory.
A product labeled "Made in China" may be designed in Germany, use key components from Japan and the Republic of Korea, draw raw materials from Latin America, be assembled in China's Yangtze River Delta or Pearl River Delta, and end up sold in the Middle East, Europe or South America.
The product leaves China and the surplus is booked in China's accounts, but the profits are shared along the entire chain. Reading only the surplus without asking how value is distributed yields a partial conclusion.
Volkswagen offers a case in point. After more than four decades in China, the group is shifting its strategy from "In China, for China" to "In China, beyond China."
"Over recent years, China has developed into a global automotive export hub. Volkswagen Group intends to participate more strongly in this development. We want to scale the capabilities we have built here beyond China," said Ralf Brandstätter, chairman and CEO of Volkswagen Group China.
Cars built in China by Volkswagen are already exported to the Middle East and Central Asia, with ASEAN and South America set to follow.
The picture looks similar when viewing the aggregate data. In the first three quarters of this year, foreign-invested enterprises recorded 11.69 trillion yuan in imports and exports, up 19 percent year on year and a record high for this period, according to GAC.
Trade in intermediate goods rose 27.4 percent to 7.9 trillion yuan, while exports of high-tech products jumped 42.1 percent. More than 150 foreign firms each handled over 10 billion yuan in trade, 20 more than a year earlier, GAC data showed.
NEW DEMAND CREATES EXPANDED MARKETS
Nor is the market seen as a fixed pie to be divided. Global renewable energy capacity is projected to nearly triple by 2030, a gap that requires vast amounts of clean energy equipment to fill.
In the first half of this year, exports by private firms of the "new trio," namely electric vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products, surged by 45.8 percent. Solar panels, lithium batteries and wind power equipment, meanwhile, are meeting new demand from the global green transition rather than competing for saturated markets.
There are more direct examples. Sustained high temperatures have pushed up cooling demand, and Europe's air-conditioning market keeps expanding, with European buyers traveling to Guangzhou to purchase in bulk at the Canton Fair.
As more countries accelerate prefabricated construction and tourism camp development, tight housing supply and fast deployment needs inquiries at prefabricated building materials and modular housing booths have also grown rapidly at this fair.
A BROADER VIEW OF BALANCED TRADE
The surplus also needs to be read alongside the broader balance of payments. China runs a large surplus in goods trade, but deficits in services trade and investment income. Its current account surplus is roughly 3.7 percent of GDP, within the range widely regarded as reasonable internationally.
China stands as not only a major seller but also a major buyer. Its imports reached 18.5 trillion yuan in 2025, making it the world's second-largest import market for 17 consecutive years and a major export destination for nearly 80 countries and regions, official data showed.
China, notably, does not deliberately pursue a trade surplus and has consistently worked toward more balanced trade. In the first half of 2026, the nation's imports exceeded 10 trillion yuan for the first time in this period.
COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE BEATS ZERO-SUM THINKING
The point of economic and trade exchanges is not a zero-sum contest but the use of comparative advantages to deliver development gains to every participant in the chain.
Dani Rodrik, a professor at Harvard University, argued in a commentary in August that when major economies are running at near full capacity, trade deficits should not be a cause for concern. Such deficits mean deficit nations consume more goods supplied by surplus economies, a transfer of purchasing power from surplus countries.
"Under the current circumstances, then, China's widely criticized surpluses might as well be called enrich-thy-neighbor," he wrote.
As the Canton Fair wound down, many buyers headed straight from Guangzhou to Shanghai. Their itineraries show not simply that China is opening up, but that both ends of the supply chain, and partners along it, have something to gain. ■
