Canton Fair promotes both on-site, online trade

The second phase of the 137th China Import and Export Fair, known as the Canton Fair, has drawn global buyers to a sprawling 515,000-square-meter exhibition space while expanding digital access to facilitate cross-border deals.

A record 170,100 products had been displayed online as of Friday, complementing bustling in-person negotiations at the event.

Exhibitors and buyers highlighted the fair's dual approach as critical to broadening international partnerships in a shifting trade landscape.

Li Ling, a ceramics exhibitor, said her company leverages the global reach to the fair by sharing annual product documentaries on social media and overseas platforms. Her colleagues are busy shooting videos of their exhibits to fill in their online booth.

"We produce a documentary (about our presence at the fair) every year and share it on major social media including overseas websites. The Canton Fair has its huge influence to enable some overseas clients unable to be here physically to know and see us, thereby enhancing our enterprise's international influence," she said.

"I work at a trade company in Russia. There are so many beautiful things here, but some customers don't have the time to come here. I'm taking videos and photos and send to them," said a Russian purchaser.

The Canton Fair's new dual-version app, tailored for buyers and suppliers, has been downloaded more than 270,000 times, according to the event's organizer.

"The current Canton Fair has for the first time launched two versions of the Canton Fair App for both buyers and suppliers. As of now, a total of more than 270,000 download users have been recorded. It has become a good assistant for exhibitors and visitors to participate on site and a good tool for online customers. This helps improve the efficiency of trade matching and the success rate of cooperation, building an efficient all-weather trade bridge," said Liang Xinye, business specialist for China Foreign Trade Center's Canton Fair department.

"By attending the fair online, we can make our preparations more accurately beforehand, collecting information and getting to know various kinds of suppliers while saving our time. And we can also communicate with the suppliers, asking them to submit samples we requested. You see Chinese commodities released this month, and at most in a few months they will appear in the Malaysian market. This means that our two countries are getting closer, and (trade) is more of a smooth sailing," said Ting Youngkang, a Malaysian purchaser.

Since 1957, the biannual Canton Fair has been a pillar of China's foreign trade, with this edition underscoring the country's push to integrate digital innovation with commerce.

Canton Fair promotes both on-site, online trade

A Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman on Friday lashed out at Japan's latest sharp increase in defense budget and planned revision of defense equipment transfer principles to allow the export of lethal weapons, urging the country to make a clean break from militarism.

It was reported that the Japanese parliament has enacted a record-high budget for fiscal year 2026, featuring a defense expenditure of 9.04 trillion yen (about 58 billion U.S. dollars), exceeding 9 trillion yen for the first time. Reports also indicate that the Japanese government is planning a significant revision to the implementation guidelines of its "Three Principles on Transfer of Defense Equipment and Technology," which will allow the export of lethal weapons.

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, the spokesman, said in response, "Various signs have shown that the Japanese right-wing forces are stepping up efforts to push the country's security policy to shift toward a more offensive and expansionist direction. Their acts gravely violate the [1943] Cairo Declaration, the [1945] Potsdam Proclamation, the [1945] Japanese Instrument of Surrender, and other instruments with legal effect under international law, gravely go against Japan's own Constitution and existing domestic norms, and pose a serious threat to the post-war international order and regional peace and stability."

"Japanese militarism once inflicted untold suffering on the region and beyond, yet there has never been a proper reckoning with it after World War II," Zhang said.

Now, the Japanese side has completely torn off its disguise and accelerated its pace of re-militarization, which cannot but arouse strong concern and condemnation from the rest of the world, the spokesman said.

"We urge the Japanese side to stop its retrogressive moves and make a clean break from militarism. Otherwise, it will lose the trust of its Asian neighbors and the rest of the international community," he said.

China urges Japan to break away from militarism