Top executives from iconic global brands descended on Shanghai this week to attend the 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE), emphasizing the importance of the country's expansive and open market, as well as its potential to help foreign companies realize innovative products and solutions for Chinese consumer tastes.
With a 160-year connection with China, Hennessy has long been one of the popular cognac brands in the country. At this year's CIIE, running from November 5 to 10, CEO and President of Hennessy Charles Delapalme discussed the importance of the expo and shared Hennessy's plans to establish deeper roots in the Chinese market.
"China is a very important market for Hennessy. And it's very important to be present here to present new products and to meet consumers that are very curious to know about the brands. I think here it's a great platform to show many things about the brand, new products, new collaboration for the Year of the Horse, but also the importance that sustainability has for Hennessy," said the CEO.
Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of cosmetic giant L'Oréal, highlighted the technological innovation driving their businesses in China.
"The brands that we develop here, and the innovations we develop here, with Chinese biotechs or startups, are the base of innovations that are taking the world then. China is not just a big market for us, it's truly an innovation hub. The Chinese teams of L'Oréal are amongst the best in the world, and this combination of local roots and local understanding, with global scale and capacity to innovate all around the world, is something that nobody can match," Hieronimus said.
Others highlighted China's growing capacity for high-end manufacturing, powered by technologies like robotics and AI. Michelin's General Manager and CFO Yves Chapot said he sees China not only as a key market but as a global innovation hub, driving faster, smarter tire development.
"We are in China for China, but we believe that the innovation that we are creating in China can benefit elsewhere in Michelin operations of other countries. Innovation is just a few people in a laboratory; it's innovation at scale, so you need manufacturing operations that are able to deploy innovation. And manufacturing itself can innovate, in the way we manage our operation, in the way we deploy new technologies such as artificial intelligence and visual computing," said the CFO.
Global luxury giant LVMH Group is showcasing various brands at this year's CIIE, including Hennessy and Dior. Asia remains LVMH Group's largest market, with China serving as the key driver of the region's growth. In an interview with CGTN, the LVMH Secretary General Marc-Antoine Jamet expressed long-term confidence in the Chinese market.
"In China we trust. We have respect, admiration for China, and we will show that the future of China, we can be confident in the future of China. China is not only market. China is an energy -- an energy which is resilient, an energy which is able of adaptation. And that's the reason why the Chinese market will be, for a long, long time, probably one of the biggest of the world. And that's the reason why we are in China," he said.
Global brand executives at CIIE hail China’s open market, innovation capacity
More than 770 high-tech companies have packed into 33 themed buildings at China's Xiong'an New Area, turning floor proximity into business partnerships in a government-engineered experiment to build innovation clusters outside the capital Beijing.
On April 1, 2017, China announced plans to establish the Xiong'an New Area, located about 100 kilometers southwest of Beijing. The aim was to build a green city on an area of 1,770 square kilometers, featuring innovation and providing a national model of high-quality development.
Over the past nine years, facilities such as the Zhongguancun Science Park have begun high-quality operations in Xiong'an. In the Zhongguancun Science Park's low-altitude economy building, Zhu Xu, co-founder of a Beijing drone company, dropped in on a company located one floor below his to explore collaboration opportunities.
As the building houses numerous upstream and downstream enterprises in the low-altitude economy industry, with potential partners just a floor or two away, Zhu frequently receives invitations to matchmaking events where participants analyze the market and discuss technologies together.
"(The Zhongguancun Science Park) organizes matchmaking events on a regular basis. At one such session, we learned about a company on the 7th floor that share some technical similarities with us. We spoke with them promptly, and now we are gradually carrying out research and development and cooperation together," said Zhu.
Zhu's company moved to Xiong'an in Oct 2025. Shortly after relocating, Zhu began joint research and development with the company on the 7th floor. Together, they have upgraded drones to support remote intelligent ground operation, quickly developing a mature autonomous drone operation system.
"We open up real-world application scenarios to enterprises. Through various activities, companies link up naturally, and collaborations within the building have happened effortlessly," said Li Yue, deputy head of the Industry, Information Technology and Data Bureau of the Xiong'an New Area.
Zhu is among many people who pursue a career and a life in the Xiong'an New Area, which has been transformed from a stretch of raw land to a mapped plan, and then to a city -- a modern new town springing up in a matter of nine years.
In the process of relieving Beijing of functions non-essential to its role as China's capital, renowned universities and research institutes, major state-owned companies as well as start-ups are relocated to this vibrant area.
So far, more than 4,000 Beijing-origin companies have been relocated to Xiong'an, and more than 400 centrally administrated state-owned enterprises have set branches in the city.
Construction is rapidly ongoing on the campus buildings of four universities in the Xiong'an New Area -- Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing University of Science and Technology, Beijing Forestry University and China University of Geosciences.
In less than a decade, Xiong'an has adhered to high standards of planning and design, adopting a "moving in after infrastructure is in place" approach, ensuring that networks of water, electricity, gas, roads and bridges are established first.
Dubbed the "city of the future", Xiong'an is undergoing rapid changes. The developed area spans around 215 square kilometers with total investment exceeding one trillion yuan (about 145 billion U.S. dollars) and over 5,300 buildings shaping the urban skyline, housing 1.41 million residents and 669 high-tech enterprises.
Meanwhile, Xiong'an is becoming greener and more biodiverse. Since 2017, a total of 32,200 hectares of new afforested land has emerged in Xiong'an, bringing the total green area to nearly 50,000 hectares. The forest coverage rate has risen from 11 percent to 35.1 percent, according to official data.
China's Xiong'an New Area clusters tech firms in themed towers, spurring vertical supply chains
