China's Hainan FTP marks its 100-day launch with foreign trade cargo volume surge

Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP), located in south China's Hainan Province, reported a surge in the foreign trade cargo volume, marking its first 100 days of island-wide special customs operations on Friday.

The world's largest free trade port by area was launched on Dec 18, 2025, allowing freer entry of overseas goods, expanding zero-tariff coverage, and introducing more business-friendly measures. FTP intends to become a world-class, high-level free trade port.

Benefiting from its strategic location and special customs operations, an increasing volume of goods is entering and leaving China through Yangpu Port, the largest cargo port in Hainan FTP, resulting in a surge in foreign trade cargo volume.

"Our vessel mainly operates on Southeast Asian routes, calling at countries such as Malaysia and Bangladesh. Departing from Yangpu [Port], the vessel is almost always fully loaded. Since the end of last year, refrigerated container volumes have grown by more than 30 percent year on year," said Zhou Zhongming, first mate on a cargo vessel.

Since the launch of special customs operations, the number of cargo ships calling at Yangpu for routes to Southeast Asia, Africa and the Americas has been increasing, according to Yangpu authorities.

As of Wednesday, approximately 1,408 international vessels have entered and left Yangpu Port -- up over 20 percent year on year, and nearly 31.748 million tons of cargo moved through the port, an increase of over 35 percent year on year.

"Foreign trade cargo vessels transiting the Hainan FTP can now refuel with bonded fuel, cutting costs by roughly 20 percent. Furthermore, goods passing through the Hainan FTP are eligible for export tax refunds at the port of departure, and imported products that undergo at least 30 percent value-added processing in Hainan can enter the mainland tariff-free. These incentives are continuously attracting more ships to transit through Yangpu," said Liu Yi, deputy director of the Yangpu Maritime Safety Administration.

So far, Hainan has attracted investment from 180 countries and regions, granted visa-free entry to 86 countries, and established partnerships with 43 free trade zones (ports) worldwide.

China's Hainan FTP marks its 100-day launch with foreign trade cargo volume surge

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) aims to deepen its cooperation with China across all fields, thereby reinforcing its partnership with the Global South as a whole, said UNESCO director-general Khaled El-Enany.

El-Enany visited China's Hangzhou, Beijing and Shanghai from May 11 to 14, his fourth time in the country and first time as UNESCO director-general. Speaking with CCTV in Beijing during the visit, he highlighted the significance of cooperation with China, noting that the partnership goes beyond the bilateral scope.

"I'm here to deepen the partnership, the very strong and well-established partnership with China, one of the big partners to UNESCO. And when you deal with China, I think it's beyond a bilateral relationship. We are dealing with the global South. We are working with China in all the fields of competence of UNESCO - in education, science, culture, communication, information. Since I arrived at UNESCO in November 2025, I'm building a very strong partnership with your permanent delegation at UNESCO, a very active one," El-Enany said in an interview that aired on Friday.

In Hangzhou, the UNESCO chief attended the opening and the plenary session of the 2026 World Digital Education Conference. He described the meeting as fruitful in terms of consensus-building.

"We [all agreed] that digital transformation and using AI [in education] is a must, but it must complement what human beings are doing. It must be ethical, equitable and inclusive," he said.

El-Enany highlighted his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 12.

"He reiterated his strong commitment to intercultural dialogue, to mutual learning among the civilizations. And this resonated [with] what he had said at UNESCO in his historic visit in 2014 to UNESCO in March, which is very aligned with the mandate of UNESCO - to build peace in the minds of women and men and to defend peace through education, science and culture," said the director-general.

UNESCO chief pledges stronger cooperation with China across all fields