Questions about CIIE｜How can 6 exciting days be transformed into 365 days of business?

When the CIIE enters its ninth year, it is like an old friend: very familiar and full of expectations.

How to create new ideas in a grand event? How to write a new chapter in an open and shared story?

As the questions emerged one by one, we came up with our plan for this year - the question of the CIIE. People often say that things last forever. Nine years into the Expo, it is still curious and deserves more attention.

Once a year, the world and China meet at the "Four-Leaf Clover".

From November 5 to 10, 2026, the 9th China International Import Expo was held in Shanghai. Guests and friends from all over the world arrived as scheduled, and good products from all over the world competed to appear. The National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai) was crowded with people. Domestic and foreign merchants shuttled between the booths. They were not only looking for new products and highlights, but also looking for business opportunities and cooperation.

Entering its ninth year, the spillover effect of the CIIE continues to show. More and more overseas companies are taking the opportunity to open up the Chinese market, turning exhibits into commodities, converting exhibitors into investors, turning brief encounters at the exhibition into long-term cooperation, and extending 6 days of excitement into 365 days of business.

Build an open bridge to allow global good products to enter the Chinese market

From first testing the waters to in-depth development, many overseas brands found the first key to opening up the Chinese market at the CIIE.

At the 7th CIIE, the American start-up Instant Technology made its Asian debut of its smart power shoe "Moonwalker" at the CIIE, which attracted many viewers to queue up to experience it. The Instant Technology team recorded the opinions of experiencers and accumulated data for the improvement of the second-generation product; the e-commerce platform took the initiative to communicate with the customer, and the product has now been successfully put on the shelves.

At the same time, technology companies around the booth have also discovered opportunities for cooperation: handling robot companies have proposed to provide balancing technology and battery life solutions, while exoskeleton equipment exhibitors hope to cooperate with "Moonwalker" to create an integrated "walking + assistance" solution.

Zhou Zhuo, a researcher at the Institute of World Economics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, said in an interview that an overseas company may know that the Chinese market is huge, but it does not know where its first customer is. The CIIE provides them with the opportunity to display products, contact buyers, and understand the market.

The experience of New Zealand Pacific Alpaca Home Textile Group also confirms this point. When it participated in the exhibition for the first time in 2021, the company only rented a 9-square-meter booth, and more than 100 alpaca products it brought were sold out. By 2025, the company's booth area has expanded to 15 times that of the first exhibition. With the help of the CIIE, brands have gradually connected with Chinese supply chains and dealer partners. Currently, at least 60% of revenue comes from the Chinese market.

From start-ups looking for market breakthroughs to mature brands expanding their business in China, the CIIE provides overseas companies at different stages of development with opportunities to connect with the Chinese market. Among the many exhibits, innovative drugs and medical devices that are directly related to people's livelihood and health demonstrate the unique value of the CIIE in accelerating the implementation of global innovation achievements.

At the Fourth China International Import Expo in 2021, the world's first photon counting CT NAEOTOM Alpha made its global debut simultaneously, which can assist in the precise diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular, respiratory, tumor, neurological and other diseases. Subsequently, the product was quickly approved by the innovative product approval channel, and the approval time was shortened by half compared with the traditional approval process. In June 2026, two domestic photon counting CTs from Siemens Healthineers were approved for sale in China. At present, photon counting CT has been implemented in more than 20 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country, and a total of 450,000 clinical scans have been completed.

Innovative drugs are also accelerating from the exhibition stand to the clinic. In July 2026, the innovative drug Redap (Presilan Sodium Injection), which made its "global debut" at the 8th China International Import Expo, was officially put into use in Shanghai. Zhongshan Hospital Affiliated to Fudan University prescribed the first prescription in Shanghai for patients. From CIIE exhibit to clinical application, it takes less than 9 months.

From new consumer products to high-end medical equipment and innovative drugs, more and more global goods are entering the Chinese market through the CIIE. The conversion speed of exhibits continues to increase, and the benefits of opening up extend from the exhibition booth to the industrial chain, the consumer side and thousands of households.

Open up the conversion chain and extend the 6-day exhibition to 365 days of business

When a product moves from the exhibition stand to the shelf, it is not only the transformation of market opportunities, but also the embodiment of trade facilitation and openness efficiency. Nowadays, with the continuous opening up of customs clearance, logistics, warehousing, sales and other links, the time difference between "seeing" and "buying" global new products is constantly shrinking.

During the 8th CIIE, Metro Supermarket opened a special section for the same products as the CIIE, and launched the Spanish black pork ribs and Thai black tiger shrimp, which were first launched at the new exhibition; in the Douyin live broadcast room of Good Farmer Fruit, two bananas from the CIIE, the Costa Rican Volcano Banana and the Ecuadorian Red Banana, were also hot sellers. The popularity of CIIE quickly transformed into consumption popularity.

During the CIIE, exhibitors will focus on displaying new products, and buyers will focus on viewing samples and selecting products; after the exhibition closes, the "6 days + 365 days" annual display and trading platform will continue to undertake the work. Platforms such as Hongqiao Imported Commodity Exhibition and Trading Center (Hongqiao Pinhui) and Greenland Global Commodity Trading Port promote the entry of goods into the national circulation network through regular display, channel docking, and live streaming.

As of the end of June 2026, Hongqiao Pinhui has brought together more than 6,000 brands and more than 90,000 same-style products from 120 countries and regions around the world; the trade volume will be 36 billion yuan in 2025 and is expected to be close to 40 billion yuan in 2026. The Greenland Global Commodity Trading Port, which has been in operation for nearly eight years, has attracted 180 companies from 76 countries and regions, established 68 national pavilions, and introduced more than 90,000 types of imported goods.

Online platforms are also extending the exhibition effect. In 2024, the Shanghai International Exhibition and Trade Promotion Platform-365 Exhibition and Trade Network will be launched, allowing buyers who are unable to go to the site to directly access the CIIE exhibits. On the eve of the 9th China International Import Expo, more than 4,400 exhibitors and more than 9,200 exhibits have settled in. As of now, Shanghai local exhibitions have more than 9,600 exhibitors and more than 16,900 exhibits online, and a three-level resource library of "Exhibition - Exhibitor - Exhibit" has been initially built, allowing trade docking to be online throughout the year.

From exhibition halls to supermarkets, from offline displays to online transactions, from centralized procurement to year-round circulation, the improvement of a series of platforms and service mechanisms is opening up the key links for the transformation of exhibits. The CIIE is no longer just an annual trade event, but has become a long-term link connecting the global supply chain with the Chinese market.

From exhibitors to investors, companies are investing in the Chinese market

If product sales are the first step for overseas companies to enter the Chinese market, then investing in building factories and establishing local teams means that companies begin to regard China as an important fulcrum for long-term development. The CIIE brings not only short-term business opportunities, but also market confidence for companies to take root in China and continue to develop.

At the first CIIE in 2018, Singaporean skin care brand Bléde Fonty participated in the exhibition for the first time. The booth was only 9 square meters and the number of visitors was limited. However, it successfully connected with the first batch of offline dealers. Since then, the brand has continued to use the CIIE to expand the Chinese market: it reached a cooperation with China Duty Free Japan in 2023, completed the signing in one month, and launched the product in three months, with annual sales reaching tens of millions of yuan during the peak period; it opened two offline stores in Shanghai in 2025, and gradually developed from an exhibitor to an investor and retailer. Today, the brand's local team has expanded to nearly a hundred people, and its annual revenue has increased more than 50 times compared with 2018.

As a "full-time student" at the CIIE, Sanofi is also continuing to deepen its presence in China. In early 2026, Sanofi started construction of an insulin API production base in Beijing with an investment of 1 billion euros. This is the first time that a multinational pharmaceutical company has deployed the production of biologics APIs in China. In addition, its R&D center in Shanghai has been fully upgraded into a translational medicine research center. It is expected that about one-third of Sanofi's new global research projects will be carried out in China in the future.

South Korea’s Samyang Foods also moved from exhibitor to local investment. In 2020, the company made its debut at the CIIE with turkey noodles, and the following year it established its China headquarters in Hongqiao. In 2024, its Chinese market size will reach 2.6 billion yuan, accounting for nearly 30% of the group's total global exports. The company has also invested 1 billion yuan to build its first overseas production base in Jiaxing, Zhejiang. Once put into operation within the year, the annual production capacity will reach 800 million to 1 billion servings of instant noodles.

"Four-leaf clover" blooms every year, global good things gather here, and cooperation opportunities grow here. More and more overseas companies are no longer satisfied with selling products to China, but choose to further deploy R&D, production, sales and other links in China, allowing the story of investment and development to continue here.

Starting from 6 days and extending to 365 days of continuous cooperation, the CIIE is turning the Chinese market into a development opportunity shared by the world, and allowing the seeds of open cooperation to bear more fruitful fruits in mutual benefit and win-win results.

The Paper reporter Chen Yue