CIIE serves as prime platform for global businesses to share in China's development achievements: commentary

The China International Import Expo (CIIE), the world's first national-level exposition dedicated to imports, offers global enterprises a prime platform to grow their presence in China and share in the country's development accomplishments, highlighting China's commitment to high-level opening up, said a China Media Group (CMG) commentary published on Monday.

An edited English-language version of the commentary is as follows:

As the eighth CIIE concluded on Monday, Sandeep Seth, chief growth officer and president of the U.S.-based Tapestry International, said that his company has already booked for the ninth CIIE, because it is a prime opportunity to showcase their products and gain inspirations.

Likewise, Lin Xiao, general manager of AstraZeneca China, who also signed up early for the next edition, said that the CIIE provides an unprecedented platform for deepening their presence in China and sharing in the country's development dividends.

Data showed that this year's CIIE concluded with remarkable results, with intended transaction value reaching 83.49 billion U.S. dollars, a 4.4 percent increase from the previous edition, setting a new record.

More than 600 new enterprises participated compared with last year, including 290 Fortune Global 500 companies and other leading industry players.

Both the exhibition space and the participation number hit historic highs, with 461 new products, technologies, and services unveiled for the first time.

The expo also introduced dedicated zones for the least-developed countries and cross-border e-commerce services.

As the world's only exposition dedicated to imports, the CIIE also serves as an important platform for China to promote its high-standard opening up. As a major step to expand voluntary opening up, the CIIE serves as a key window to observe China's transition from a follower to a frontrunner in championing an open global economy.

Over recent years, "expanding voluntary opening up" has frequently been included in China's top-level design for national development, highlighting the country's determination to pursue a more proactive opening-up strategy.

This kind of opening up is rooted in China's soil, emphasizes deep and positive engagement with the world, goes beyond the traditional international reciprocity principle of opening up, and reflects China's confidence and responsibility to strengthen itself while helping others thrive, said Liao Fan, director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences' (CASS) Institute of World Economics and Politics.

As rising unilateralism and protectionism continue to disrupt global markets and many developing countries are eager to join in the international division of labor to advance development, China's continuous expansion of high-standard and voluntary opening up not only aligns with the law of the market but also meets people's aspirations for development and a better life, providing valuable stability and certainty for global openness at a critical juncture.

Domestically, China has the confidence and capacity to expand voluntary opening up, as its solid economic foundation and robust economic resilience ensure that the country can advance opening up independently free from the impact of complex external circumstances.

By opening its doors further wider, China first offers a supersized market to global businesses. Just a day before the opening of this year's CIIE, China launched a series of events with the theme "Big Market for All: Export to China," allowing products from various countries to reach Chinese consumers directly.

Luca de Meo, CEO of the French luxury group Kering, said that the company's growth has always gone hand in hand with China's continuous opening up and expansion of imports.

China's opening up has also pooled together cutting-edge elements and accelerated technological innovation, with the eighth CIIE witnessing Swedish company Hexagon debut the application scenarios of industrial humanoid robots, while French energy management and automation multinational Schneider Electric, together with its upstream and downstream partners, showcased their joint innovation achievements.

More importantly, China's opening-up push has driven global openness. China, by pushing forward its "bringing in" and "going out" strategies, has been driving global exports and economic growth and helping other developing countries in their industrialization efforts, Liao said.

Currently, preparations for the ninth CIIE are now in full swing, with over 80,000 square meters of its designated business exhibition space already booked. Just a few days ago, China announced to expand its 240-hour visa-free transit program to more ports and extend its unilateral visa-exemption arrangements for more than 40 countries to Dec. 31, 2026, in the country's latest move to further open up to the world.

It has been proven that the more open a country becomes, the greater its development, and vice versa. As Kishore Mahbubani, a distinguished fellow at the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore, noted, China has long embraced opening up and the trend toward a more open world is unstoppable.

CIIE serves as prime platform for global businesses to share in China's development achievements: commentary

CIIE serves as prime platform for global businesses to share in China's development achievements: commentary

The ongoing probe revolving around the late U.S. financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has become a powerful symbol of systemic dysfunction in Western political and judicial systems and has significantly eroded public trust, according to analysts.

In the latest episode of the China Global Television Network (CGTN) opinion show 'The Point with Liu Xin' which aired Wednesday, experts debated the ongoing controversies surrounding the latest release of documents in the so-called Epstein files.

The newly-released files totaling some three million pages have sparked serious scrutiny across the Atlantic, prompting the resignation of several political figures over their ties to Epstein, who died under mysterious circumstances in a maximum-security facility in 2019.

Han Hua, the co-founder and secretary general of the Beijing Club for International Dialogue, a Chinese think tank, noted how Epstein, in spite of his conviction, had seemingly built up an expansive network of the rich and powerful, and said the sense of "elite impunity" and the seeming disregard for morality among many of those involved has dealt a huge blow to Western democracy, which is supposedly built upon the basis of the rule of law.

"Right after 2008, Epstein certainly has built an even stronger and much larger Western elite circle including politicians, including academia, including the political and the religious figures like the Dalai Lama. So this actually indicates the 'bankruptcy' of the Western democracy from the moral high ground, from the rule of law. It is systematic damage to the whole system and also to the judicial and legal system. And they are building a circle that can protect Epstein and the elites in this circle from getting [allegations], from getting legally punished, so that the cases [could become] even larger. And there are so many victims, there is no perspective with regard to the victims to be protected," she said.

Josef Mahoney, a professor of politics and international relations at East China Normal University, said the ongoing Epstein saga has deeply flamed public distrust, exposing uncomfortable truths about how power operates behind closed doors.

"We've also seen, as has been raised, the question about whether or not the system can be trusted. There's intense distrust now in the system. But at the same time, I think the other point to be raised about moral authority is that what you see are leaders, figures from different fields, from across the political spectrum, essentially working together in a way, so they represent and they stoke divisions in society that exploit and suppress the people. But at the same time we see them, the left wing, the right wing, the center, all sort of having these extreme parties or relationships with each other, which really begs the question of whether or not there's a true democracy to begin with," he said.

Epstein case sows deeper distrust in Western politics, judicial systems: analysts