The inaugural CIIE U-Fair, an extension of the influential China International Import Expo, kicked off in Shanghai on Friday, bringing selected popular exhibits to individual consumers.
Dubbed a "mini CIIE," the three-day U-Fair spans over 53,000 square meters and features more than 700 enterprises from over 60 countries and regions, offering a wide array of products, including food, agricultural products, health supplements and automobiles.
"It's quite interesting. Here, you can see a huge variety of products at once. You can also spot some products and brands that you can't see in the shopping malls," said Xu, a visitor.
"I had bought some at the CIIE and was still not satisfied, so I pulled a suitcase over again to do some shopping today," said another visitor.
The fair primarily targets consumers but also attracts numerous buyers, service providers, and channel partners looking to connect with international brands.
Notably, a dedicated 500-square-meter zone for new brands that debuted at the CIIE has been set up to showcase over 100 innovative products, enabling cutting-edge innovations from around the world to reach the Chinese market more quickly and directly, fostering faster global innovation exchange.
As the world's first national-level import-themed expo, the 8th CIIE took place in Shanghai from November 5 to 10, recording 83.49 billion U.S. dollars in one-year intended deals, up 4.4 percent from the previous edition and hitting a new high.
CIIE U-Fair sparks new spending spree in Shanghai
Ronny Herman de Jong, a Dutch-American survivor of Japanese-run internment camps in Southeast Asia during World War II, has recounted the atrocities committed by the Japanese Imperial Army against women and children, urging the Japanese government to issue a formal apology to the victims and survivors.
Born in 1938 on the island of Java in the then Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), de Jong was just a toddler when Japanese forces invaded in 1942.
Along with her mother and younger sister, she was forcibly interned in a concentration camp for women and children, where they endured nearly four years of starvation, disease, and brutal treatment, narrowly escaping death on multiple occasions.
"In the women's camps, they would put bamboo sticks under the fingernails. They put burning cigarette butts on women's breasts. That did not happen to my mom, but it happened to a lot of the people. They were severely maltreated. Even little babies were just killed. In the end, there were so many deaths. The mortality rate on Java [Island] was more than 10 times normal, and there were no longer coffins provided anymore. People that died just had to be taken out of the camp and dumped into a big pit that the women had to have dug, or they were just dumped over the fence," de Jong recounted.
After the war, her family emigrated to the United States. Decades later, she published a book based on her mother's secret diary -- smuggled out of the camp -- which chronicled their harrowing ordeal.
First released in Canada in 1992, the book met with significant resistance in Japan. According to de Jong, a Japanese journalist in Canada who had agreed to translate the work was later murdered, halting efforts to bring the account to Japanese readers.
To this day, de Jong stressed that Japan has never issued a formal apology to the victims or survivors of its wartime aggression across Asia.
"Japan has never offered an apology to any of the survivors or victims. Now, Japan is starting to change their democracy by changing that Article 9 [of the Japanese Constitution] that says Japan should not have any armed forces ever again that can start war. And now, the [Japanese] prime minister is trying to change that by reinforcing the Japanese arms," she said.
In 2001, de Jong realized how little the world knew about the Japanese-run internment camps in Southeast Asia during WWII. Declassified documents from the U.S. National Archives revealed a chilling plan: Japanese authorities had intended to systematically exterminate all remaining camp internees beginning in September 1945, just weeks after Japan announced its unconditional surrender.
Since then, de Jong has dedicated herself to compiling testimonies from WWII veterans and former child internees, publishing more books to ensure this history is never forgotten nor denied.
"What I want to say to the generations of now and to come, you have to remember this war -- the Second World War in the Pacific. It was the most cruel and expensive war ever. That is not a war that you can say 'oh, it did not happen'. It does not. That is not true. You have to remember this war," she said.
Concentration camp survivor recounts Japanese army's atrocities during WWII
