The 140th Canton Fair is being held in Guangzhou, and the exhibition hall is packed with people. Li Zhifeng, deputy secretary-general of the Hong Kong Chinese Import and Export Chamber of Commerce, was not only looking for business opportunities, but also reminiscing with old partners from his ancestors and fathers. His grandfather Li Huan was born in an overseas Chinese family. In 1957, Li Huan, who was in his early 30s, opened the door to the first Canton Fair as a buyer. Unexpectedly, three generations would come. From "what you have, sell what you have" to "what is new in China, bring it abroad", the Canton Fair in the eyes of three generations of the Li family is a vivid epitome of overseas Chinese businessmen crossing mountains and seas to support Guangdong's foreign trade.
Guangdong is a key hometown of overseas Chinese in the country. There are nearly 30 million overseas Chinese from Guangdong, with their footprints in more than 160 countries and regions around the world. The bond between people at home and abroad across mountains and seas has been closely intertwined with Guangdong’s foreign trade since modern times.
After the maritime ban was lifted in the early Qing Dynasty, a large number of Cantonese people took boats from Haikou Port in Taishan, Zhanglin Ancient Port in Chenghai, Songkou Town in Meizhou and other places to sail to Nanyang and go to Jinshan. In an era when financial and postal services were still imperfect, the overseas Chinese batches brought back by "water passengers" became a special channel to maintain the blood and economic lifeline of overseas Chinese hometowns, and were also regarded as "private letters of credit" based on hometown friendship and integrity.
This business ethics of attaching importance to hometown friendship and keeping integrity is in line with the pragmatic genes of Guangzhou Huo.
In August 2026, the 12th Chinese and Overseas Chinese Industry Fair 2026 was held in Shenzhen. Photo provided by the organizer
After more than a hundred years of circulation, the overseas Chinese businessman network has always been the most unique foundation for Guangdong’s foreign trade. At the beginning of the reform and opening up, Huo Yingdong took the lead in returning to his hometown to lay out Nansha and build the Zhongshan Hot Spring Hotel. Zeng Xianzi returned to Meizhou to implement the processing project of supplied materials. They led a large number of overseas Chinese businessmen to return to their hometowns to invest and set up factories, bringing overseas orders, equipment and international market information; after the establishment of the Canton Fair, overseas Chinese businessmen were also the earliest and most stable overseas purchasing group.
According to the 2025 special survey by the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People’s Congress, overseas Chinese-funded enterprises currently account for more than 60% of foreign-funded enterprises in Guangdong. Overseas Chinese-funded enterprises have laid the initial foundation for Guangdong to become the “world’s factory”.
Today, the volume of Guangdong’s foreign trade continues to grow. Statistics show that in the first three quarters of this year, Guangdong's foreign trade import and export reached 8.72 trillion yuan (RMB, the same below), a year-on-year increase of 24.5%, achieving year-on-year growth for 13 consecutive quarters.
Among them, the power of overseas Chinese businessmen and overseas investors is indispensable. In Jiangmen alone, in the first three quarters of this year, the import and export of overseas Chinese-funded enterprises reached 56.94 billion yuan, accounting for 36.1% of the city's total foreign trade value. Since 2023, Guangdong has launched 250 overseas Chinese-related projects worth more than 10 million yuan, with 125 billion yuan in funds in place.
On August 20, 2026, the 2026 "Overseas Chinese Help Thousands of Enterprises and Products Go Overseas" Action (Guangdong) and the Asia-Pacific Economic and Trade Cooperation and Exchange Promotion Event kicked off at the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Center (Futian). Photo provided by the organizer
Behind the data is a transformation chain from nostalgia to industry, from connections to orders. The operation of the chain relies on mechanisms and platforms. In recent years, as foreign trade competition has become increasingly fierce and overseas market differentiation has intensified, Guangdong regards the resources of overseas Chinese businessmen as valuable resources to develop diversified international markets, and has innovatively created a series of platform carriers to promote trade with overseas Chinese.
In 2025, the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Guangdong Province promoted the establishment of the "Guangdong Trade Global" alliance of overseas Chinese businessmen, attracting nearly 60 institutions from 30 countries and regions to join, and regularly organizing economic and trade exchange activities for overseas Chinese businessmen. The province's overseas Chinese affairs system vigorously implements the action of overseas Chinese helping high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce and the "action of overseas Chinese helping thousands of enterprises and thousands of products go overseas".
At the same time, Guangdong has established liaison mechanisms with more than 2,000 overseas Chinese groups in more than 160 countries (regions), established 31 overseas economic and trade representative offices in key countries, promoted the establishment of 50 overseas Guangdong chambers of commerce, and established Guangdong commodity exhibition and sales centers and overseas warehouses overseas to promote trade and compete for orders.
Data map: In May 2023, the 2023 Overseas Chinese Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Conference was held in Jiangmen. Photo provided by the organizer
Once the platform is set up, orders will follow. In April this year, at a special event in Dongguan called "Overseas Chinese Help Thousands of Enterprises and Products Go Overseas", nearly 300 overseas Chinese businessmen and leaders from more than 20 countries and regions gathered together and reached 14 signed cooperation contracts with a purchase intention amounting to 2.14 billion yuan.
In July this year, at the Zhongshan Overseas Chinese Exchange and Cooperation Conference "Overseas Chinese Connected Around the World and Traded Across the Five Continents", many companies signed orders totaling over 61 million yuan with companies from Indonesia, South Africa and Ukraine.
In August, the Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Industry Fair attracted 305 companies to participate in the exhibition, and more than 15,000 cooperation requests were released on the first day of the opening. At the 25th Chenghai International Toys and Gifts Expo held recently, more than 40 Chaozhou overseas Chinese leaders from around the world organized a group to return to their hometowns to watch the exhibition and connect.
Gao Peixuan, chairman of the Federation of Hong Kong Shantou Associations, said that overseas Chinese associations will help Chenghai Toys connect overseas retail giants and wholesale markets through overseas business networks and supply chain resources, and reduce intermediate warehousing costs through cross-border e-commerce.
Cross-border e-commerce, shared overseas warehouses, and market procurement trade have accelerated in Guangdong in recent years and have become new models actively embraced by many overseas Chinese businessmen.
Zhang Qinwei, president of the UAE Guangdong Chamber of Commerce, who is rooted in Dubai, started with small commodity trading. Over the past 20 years, he has successively built physical display platforms such as the UAE China Wholesale City, relying on the resources of the local overseas Chinese chamber of commerce to focus on the exhibition and sales of Guangdong home furnishings, clothing, and daily light industrial products. Different from the traditional middleman model, he collaborated with chambers of commerce to build a localized service team to provide Guangdong small and medium-sized manufacturers with integrated supporting services such as overseas display warehouses, local promotion, and customs clearance and after-sales services.
Connected to the complete industrial and supply chain of the Greater Bay Area on one end and consumer markets all over the world on the other, many overseas Chinese businessmen from Guangdong are evolving from "cargo carriers" and "middlemen" to "partners" and "industry chain co-builders".
Chen Yiping, a professor at the Overseas Chinese Research Institute of Jinan University, pointed out in an interview with a reporter from China News Service that from the Ming and Qing Dynasties when overseas Chinese went to Nanyang, to overseas Chinese investment after reform and opening up, to today's cross-border e-commerce, although the Chinese business network has undergone tremendous changes, its role as a bridge with "fate" as the link, credit as the cornerstone, and mutual benefit as the driving force has never changed.
The local pronunciation remains unchanged, and the trade routes are long. As the APEC Leaders' Informal Meeting is held in Shenzhen, Guangdong is ushering in opening-up opportunities "at its doorstep". This cross-oceanic link jointly paved by tens of millions of overseas Chinese will continue to inject inexhaustible "overseas Chinese" power into Guangdong's foreign trade to become "new", "excellent" and "global". (over)
