The 138th edition of the China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, opened in Guangzhou of south China's Guangdong Province on Wednesday, with both the number of participating companies and booths setting new records.
This fair will be divided into three phases, with each phase lasting for five days.
The first phase, running from Oct 15 to 19, focuses on advanced manufacturing, including electronic appliances and industrial equipment.
At 09:00 in the morning, purchasers from all over the world entered the venue to select new products, negotiate deals and take the pulse of the market.
According to the organizer, about 247,000 purchasers from 218 countries and regions have pre-registered for this fair, up 10 percent from the previous edition. Notably, the number of buyers from the European Union, the United States, and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative has shown significant growth.
A total of 74,600 booths are arranged for some 32,000 participating companies at this edition of Canton Fair. Among them, about 3,600 companies will be making their debut at the fair.
Over 10,000 participating companies are hi-tech firms, SMEs that use specialized and sophisticated technologies to produce novel and unique products or manufacturing champions for a certain sector, taking up 30 percent of the total exhibitors.
This fair set up a service robot zone, demonstrating leading embodied robots and robot dogs. The event will feature a dedicated zone for the smart healthcare industry for the first time to better showcase China's advanced products and technologies in the medical field.
138th Canton Fair opens with record number of participating companies
International relations experts from Japan and some other countries warned against the rise of right-wing militarism tendencies in the Japanese government reflected in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's recent Taiwan-related remarks.
Critics say such blatant disregard of history and basic principles of international relations could have very dangerous impacts, damaging mutual trust Asian countries have worked hard to build and threating peace and stability in the region.
"Sanae Takaichi say that a Taiwan emergency is a Japanese emergency. This statement is very dangerous. It breaks basic principles of international law and international relations. It also interferes in China's internal affairs and try to pull Japan into a regional conflict. This work shows that some Japanese politicians are moving forward right-wing ideas and risky military thinking," said Lim Wen Jye, a senior researcher at Malaysia's Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research.
"To my view, Takaichi is simply a puppet for these forces that are being activated - the old military forces, the right-wing forces in Japan," said Stephen Brawer, an international relations expert and chairman of the Belt and Road Institute in Sweden.
In Japan, scholars have stressed the importance of stable bilateral relations with China and urged the prime minister to withdraw erroneous remarks.
"From a diplomatic perspective, existing agreements between Japan and China were overturned. When Sino-Japanese relations were normalized, China's approach to Japan was to make a distinction between Japanese militarists and ordinary citizens, and not to seek reparations. However, the Japanese government must bear its due responsibility for the past," said political economist Kazuhide Uekusa.
Scholars warn against right-wing politics reflected in Japanese PM's remarks
