Foreign companies that have taken part in every edition of the China International Import Expo say the Shanghai event has become a fixed point in their China strategy, according to 新华网客户端. The ninth edition, held in Shanghai, drew exhibitors who have attended all nine years — a group Chinese state media calls the expo's "full-attendance" participants. Their reasons, as reported by 新华网客户端, range from faster regulatory approvals to signed contracts and new research and manufacturing sites.
Why it matters
The accounts matter because they come from companies with the longest track record at the expo, not first-time visitors. Their testimony is being presented by 新华网客户端 as evidence that the event functions as a working channel into the Chinese market rather than a one-off showcase. The same reporting links continued participation to China's moves to shorten the negative list for foreign investment and improve the business environment — a policy environment that Deloitte China chairman Jiang Ying described to 新华网客户端 as institutional opening.
Medical approvals as the headline benefit
Medtronic's vice president of corporate affairs and communications for Greater China, Cao Shan, told 新华网客户端 that 40 of the company's innovative medical products made their global debut at the expo over the past eight years and then moved quickly through Chinese approval and onto the market with policy support, with some later produced locally.
The company's leadless cardiac pacemaker, introduced at the first edition, won approval a year later and is now used in more than a thousand Chinese hospitals, according to the report. Novo Nordisk's once-weekly insulin formulation was shown at the sixth edition as clinical research literature and reached commercial launch and medical insurance coverage a year later. 新华网客户端 describes this pattern as a growing cohort of products that go from exhibit to approved product in about a year.
Consumer brands and the shift from display to sales
For consumer goods, the expo's effect shows up in how quickly brands become known. L'Oréal's 3CE and CeraVe labels used launches at the event to enter the Chinese market and have kept growing there, according to the report. IKEA's FÖRSTÅ series, given its global premiere at last year's expo, sold more than 380,000 units in about five months after launch, 新华网客户端 reported.
Dow's booth drew steady crowds, and on 6 November alone the company held several signing ceremonies with partners including Hisense Group, Transfar Chemicals and Wuxi Kema. Huang Yingxue, Dow's Greater China president, told 新华网客户端 that the expo is no longer just a trade fair but an annual hub connecting the Chinese market, customers and the innovation ecosystem.
Deals that turn fellow exhibitors into partners
Many of the agreements are being signed between companies that are themselves exhibiting, so companies showing side by side become partners in the same supply chain, according to the report. Standard Chartered China, another full-attendance participant, signed an agreement with COSCO Shipping Bulk, also in the services exhibition area, to cooperate on sustainable finance. German rubber and plastics machinery maker KraussMaffei deepened cooperation with Shanghai Xiangxiang Intelligent Technology, with plans to take recycling packaging solutions refined in China to overseas markets.
Dow's 2023 memorandum of cooperation with ZKH Industrial Supply, valued at $300 million, was followed over two years by expansion of several silicone downstream product projects at Dow's Zhangjiagang site, 新华网客户端 reported.
Investment follows the contracts
Beyond manufacturing, Honeywell signed with the Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone for a process control innovation and research center that has since been completed and put into use, according to the report. Bayer and Shanghai Pharmaceuticals built what the report describes as Bayer's largest biopharmaceutical co-creation platform in Asia-Pacific, focused on incubating cell and gene therapy innovation.
Russian exporters have also been full-attendance participants. The Russian Export Center has organized Russian companies at all nine editions, showing goods and arranging business matchmaking with distributors and importers, its chief representative in China, Yudin Panov, told 新华网客户端. He said the expo has brought Russian companies substantial orders over multiple editions, and that the center will sign a cooperation agreement with Lianhua Supermarket this year to put more Russian food on Chinese tables.
Jiang Ying of Deloitte China told 新华网客户端 that companies keep returning and expanding in China because they remain confident in the country's economic prospects and because the investment environment has improved through a shorter negative list and better business conditions. The number nine, she noted, sounds like "long-lasting" in Chinese — and she said the expo's continuity underlines the stability and predictability of the Chinese market.
What to watch: whether the products and agreements announced at this edition translate into approvals, launches and construction on the same timelines companies are citing — and whether the full-attendance group grows when the tenth edition opens.
