China International Import Expo (CIIE)

The China International Import Expo was created in 2018 as a signature event of China's 'opening-up' policy: a fair whose exhibitors are foreign companies and whose visitors are Chinese buyers. It is organised by the Ministry of Commerce with the Shanghai government and runs for six days in early November at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Hongqiao, with a national-pavilion section for countries and a business section for companies.

The business exhibition covers food and agricultural products, consumer goods, medical equipment and healthcare, intelligent industry and information technology, automobiles, and trade in services. State-owned trading groups, provincial delegations and large private importers attend as organised buyer groups with purchasing targets, which is why the fair reports 'intended deals' of tens of billions of dollars each year — 83.4 billion US dollars at the 2025 edition according to the organiser.

For a foreign producer, CIIE is a market-entry platform more than a sales fair: a way to meet distributors, regulators and platform buyers in one place, to test reactions to products not yet registered in China, and to use the fair's bonded-exhibition rules under which samples can be shown and sold in limited quantities without full import formalities.

Participation is by application through the CIIE Bureau or a national pavilion organiser; space is allocated by country and sector and fills early. Visitor access is by pre-registered professional badge.

The fair coincides with the Canton Fair's third phase and with the Hongqiao International Economic Forum; Shanghai hotels are busy and rail and air travel around the city is heavy that week.