China International Industry Fair opens, sets records

The world's largest industrial fair by exhibition space, the China International Industry Fair (CIIF) 2025, opened in Shanghai on Tuesday. This year's event set attendance and foreign exhibitor records, demonstrating China's industrial sector's rapid growth and modernization.

Nearly 3,000 exhibitors from 28 countries and regions and 102 professional buyers from those countries have registered for the fair. The number of pre-registered foreign visitors has doubled since last year, demonstrating this industrial event's global reach.

Li Lecheng, Minister of Industry and Information Technology, said China will pursue "new-type industrialization" in the next five years. He stressed the importance of high-quality development, accelerating new pillar industries, and creating a growth mechanism for future industries like humanoid robots, brain-computer interfaces, the Metaverse, and quantum computing.

The ceremony also launched public service platforms to promote innovation and industrial modernization.

Haizol, China Unicom, China Telecom, and China Mobile launched the Digital and Intelligent Public Service Platform for Key Industries in the Yangtze River Delta.

The CIFF also established city-level pilot-scale production platforms aimed at streamlining innovation. The platforms will provide public services and resource sharing for photoresist and raw materials, new energy storage testing, aerospace machine tool equipment, and humanoid robot development.

The robotics pavilion displays dozens of new robots. The opening ceremony featured two smart mechanical arms from Shanghai-based JAKA that created the "CIIF" logo on sand.