China Launches Supply Chain Expo Amidst US Pressure

China is to host what it called the world’s first national expo devoted to the supply chain in Beijing, as it fights US efforts to contain the growth of the country’s high-tech industry.

The five-day China International Supply Chain Expo, starting on 28 November, is expected to attract more than 300 exhibiting companies, with international exhibitors making up 30 percent of the total, said Ren Hongbin, chair of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), which is organising the event.

US companies represented the largest proportion of international firms, Ren told a press conference of the State Council Information Office on Friday.

He said the expo would take up more than 100,000 square metres and that about 100 firms have already signed up.

‘Connecting the world’

Under the theme of “connecting the world for a shared future”, the expo is to feature the supply chains of five industries: smart vehicles, green agriculture, clean energy, digital technology and healthy living.

More than 100,000 people are due to attend, including international buyers from more than 50 international countries and regions accounting for 40 percent of the total.

“Many US firms said that they need to restructure their global supply chains after three years of Covid disruption, and it is impossible to neglect Chinese markets and Chinese companies [during the process],” said Lin Shunjie, chair of the China International Exhibition Center Group that is co-organising the event, in a statement cited by the state-backed Global Times newspaper.

“This also shows that the expo comes at just the right time,” Lin added.

Sanctions

The expo comes at a time when the world’s second-largest economy has been hit by sanctions from the US and its allies aiming to contain its ability to manufacture high-end technology, which the US says represents a national security risk.

The previous US administration added telecoms giant Huawei to a trade blacklist in 2019 and last October the US introduced export restrictions preventing Chinese firms from obtaining high-end chips and manufacturing technology.

Similar restrictions have since been introduced by Japan and the Netherlands.