Observing Sino-US Trade Trends from the Tech Industry's Spring Festival Gala, CES
Duration:
Jan 07 - 10, 2025
Location:
United States
With Jensen Huang (CEO of NVIDIA) making his appearance in a new leather jacket and new graphics card to deliver a speech, the annual tech industry's spring festival gala - the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, USA - has once again begun. It is reported that this year's CES has more than 4,300 exhibitors and over 140,000 attendees, with more than 1,300 Chinese exhibitors, maintaining the top spot.
This year marks the 12th year that Made-in-China.com has participated in CES, meeting nearly a thousand new and old friends as scheduled at the booth. Although there are varying opinions and strategies regarding CES, the US market, and the future of China's foreign trade, every foreign trade person's story is closely linked, together witnessing the growth of China's tech industry at CES.
"Undercurrents" Stirring
Despite Chinese exhibitors still leading in numbers at this edition of CES, their path to participation was not smooth. A month before the show, domestic media revealed that a large number of CES Chinese participants had their US visas denied. The approval rate for US visas was already not high, but if participants indicated during the visa interview that they were attending CES, the rejection rate would be even higher. This was the case despite them providing formal invitations, exhibitor badges, and other documents; they were still unreasonably denied visas. A week before the event started, there were vendors in the exhibitor groups who, out of helplessness due to visa denial, had to resort to selling their booths at short notice.
Of course, visa rejections are just an undercurrent in the wider ocean of Sino-US contention. With the intensification of global trade barriers in recent years, and the impending inauguration of a new US administration, both domestic suppliers and American buyers are closely monitoring the "Damocles' sword" of additional tariffs hanging over everyone's heads. When asked about their strategies to cope with this, the response from Cassandra, a purchasing manager from Phoenix, USA, added a bit of confidence. Cassandra told Made-in-China.com: "Chinese manufacturing has crazily penetrated into many industries in the United States over the past decade. I don't think imposing heavy tariffs on China will allow American manufacturing to reclaim the market, let alone make America great again. My Chinese suppliers are very smart; they will find solutions. As long as the final costs are controlled within a reasonable range, my company will prefer to work with Chinese suppliers we have already cooperated with."
A Chinese exhibitor named Chen, who deals in 3C accessories, told Made-in-China.com that his company had wisely set up a factory in South America during the honeymoon period of China-US relations. "Our main competition isn't with American 3C accessory companies, but with a large number of Chinese companies. A few years ago, American exhibitors accounted for at least 50% of the CES 3C electronics accessories pavilion. Now, if you look, 80% are Chinese exhibitors. Americans are betting on those seven tech giants; they are no longer concerned with these small accessories," said Chen.
Meanwhile, the areas that the United States is focusing on, such as semiconductors, new energy, and even social media, are where the "visible currents" are flowing. Huawei, DJI, and other major Chinese semiconductor companies will participate in future exhibitions, and one of the hot topics during CES was the news that TikTok would be forced out of the US market on January 18. TikTok creators at CES ranged from elderly grandmothers in wheelchairs to teenagers, some there to source products to sell, others to create eye-catching content.
No booth, No game
CES employs a points system for booth selection, allowing exhibitors to choose their spot for the next edition on-site at the current event. If an exhibitor is absent for more than one show, their points are reset to zero, making it difficult to secure a good location again. At CES, the booth location significantly determines the effectiveness of participation. For example, the foot traffic between the first and second floors of the South Hall is like night and day. Despite many vacancies at the back of the first floor, organizers do not permit exhibitors from the second floor to relocate downwards. "If you don't exhibit, you're out of the game." It is for this reason that many Chinese exhibitors overcome significant obstacles to continue participating and accumulate points.
"Besides exhibitors, the CES audience is also filled with Chinese faces from all over the world. 'Even if you don't exhibit, you can still attend. Even if you can't fully showcase yourself, it's still quite good if you can observe, learn, think, and exchange ideas,' said a Chinese attendee. Just like the China-US trade situation, Chinese companies won't miss any opportunity."
"Technology will always empower the nation.
Despite the absence of many big-name Chinese brands, Chinese companies nearly monopolized the advertising at this edition of CES. We saw major Chinese brands like TCL and Hisense use dazzling displays to showcase China's prowess. Additionally, we witnessed many Chinese tech startups with booths brimming with visitors, matching or even surpassing international exhibitors in design sophistication and novelty, as well as in technological maturity. In contrast to the past, when Chinese suppliers relied on 'cost-effectiveness' to enter markets, today's Chinese enterprises are increasingly emphasizing technological innovation to meet market demands."
Some exhibitors humorously remarked, "Chinese excel at making a sudden breakthrough; without your suppression, we wouldn't even realize how much you value these things."
Whether it's in the highly sought-after fields like electric vehicles or in our traditional areas of strength such as display technology, smart homes, and digital hardware, many Chinese enterprises are beginning to emerge and gradually become mainstays within the industry. The biggest surprise of this CES was once again the focus on domestic robots. Of the 14 humanoid robots that shared the stage with Jensen Huang, 6 were from China, 4 from the USA, and one each from Germany, Norway, Israel, and Canada. The booth of the much-talked-about UNITREE Technology was not large, yet it was crowded with onlookers. Their showcased humanoid and quadruped robots demonstrated such impressive agility that it was astonishing, having completely surpassed human physical capabilities. The robot butler scenes that we've seen only in science fiction movies seem to be just around the corner from becoming a reality.
Made-in-China.com will continue to innovate its services, joining forces with Chinese enterprises in their ventures to global trade fairs, dedicated to uncovering worldwide business opportunities for Chinese suppliers and international buyers, seizing the latest market information, and brokering trade engagements between the two sides. Please look forward to it!
This year marks the 12th year that Made-in-China.com has participated in CES, meeting nearly a thousand new and old friends as scheduled at the booth. Although there are varying opinions and strategies regarding CES, the US market, and the future of China's foreign trade, every foreign trade person's story is closely linked, together witnessing the growth of China's tech industry at CES.
"Undercurrents" Stirring
Despite Chinese exhibitors still leading in numbers at this edition of CES, their path to participation was not smooth. A month before the show, domestic media revealed that a large number of CES Chinese participants had their US visas denied. The approval rate for US visas was already not high, but if participants indicated during the visa interview that they were attending CES, the rejection rate would be even higher. This was the case despite them providing formal invitations, exhibitor badges, and other documents; they were still unreasonably denied visas. A week before the event started, there were vendors in the exhibitor groups who, out of helplessness due to visa denial, had to resort to selling their booths at short notice.
Of course, visa rejections are just an undercurrent in the wider ocean of Sino-US contention. With the intensification of global trade barriers in recent years, and the impending inauguration of a new US administration, both domestic suppliers and American buyers are closely monitoring the "Damocles' sword" of additional tariffs hanging over everyone's heads. When asked about their strategies to cope with this, the response from Cassandra, a purchasing manager from Phoenix, USA, added a bit of confidence. Cassandra told Made-in-China.com: "Chinese manufacturing has crazily penetrated into many industries in the United States over the past decade. I don't think imposing heavy tariffs on China will allow American manufacturing to reclaim the market, let alone make America great again. My Chinese suppliers are very smart; they will find solutions. As long as the final costs are controlled within a reasonable range, my company will prefer to work with Chinese suppliers we have already cooperated with."
A Chinese exhibitor named Chen, who deals in 3C accessories, told Made-in-China.com that his company had wisely set up a factory in South America during the honeymoon period of China-US relations. "Our main competition isn't with American 3C accessory companies, but with a large number of Chinese companies. A few years ago, American exhibitors accounted for at least 50% of the CES 3C electronics accessories pavilion. Now, if you look, 80% are Chinese exhibitors. Americans are betting on those seven tech giants; they are no longer concerned with these small accessories," said Chen.
Meanwhile, the areas that the United States is focusing on, such as semiconductors, new energy, and even social media, are where the "visible currents" are flowing. Huawei, DJI, and other major Chinese semiconductor companies will participate in future exhibitions, and one of the hot topics during CES was the news that TikTok would be forced out of the US market on January 18. TikTok creators at CES ranged from elderly grandmothers in wheelchairs to teenagers, some there to source products to sell, others to create eye-catching content.
No booth, No game
CES employs a points system for booth selection, allowing exhibitors to choose their spot for the next edition on-site at the current event. If an exhibitor is absent for more than one show, their points are reset to zero, making it difficult to secure a good location again. At CES, the booth location significantly determines the effectiveness of participation. For example, the foot traffic between the first and second floors of the South Hall is like night and day. Despite many vacancies at the back of the first floor, organizers do not permit exhibitors from the second floor to relocate downwards. "If you don't exhibit, you're out of the game." It is for this reason that many Chinese exhibitors overcome significant obstacles to continue participating and accumulate points.
"Besides exhibitors, the CES audience is also filled with Chinese faces from all over the world. 'Even if you don't exhibit, you can still attend. Even if you can't fully showcase yourself, it's still quite good if you can observe, learn, think, and exchange ideas,' said a Chinese attendee. Just like the China-US trade situation, Chinese companies won't miss any opportunity."
"Technology will always empower the nation.
Despite the absence of many big-name Chinese brands, Chinese companies nearly monopolized the advertising at this edition of CES. We saw major Chinese brands like TCL and Hisense use dazzling displays to showcase China's prowess. Additionally, we witnessed many Chinese tech startups with booths brimming with visitors, matching or even surpassing international exhibitors in design sophistication and novelty, as well as in technological maturity. In contrast to the past, when Chinese suppliers relied on 'cost-effectiveness' to enter markets, today's Chinese enterprises are increasingly emphasizing technological innovation to meet market demands."
Some exhibitors humorously remarked, "Chinese excel at making a sudden breakthrough; without your suppression, we wouldn't even realize how much you value these things."
Whether it's in the highly sought-after fields like electric vehicles or in our traditional areas of strength such as display technology, smart homes, and digital hardware, many Chinese enterprises are beginning to emerge and gradually become mainstays within the industry. The biggest surprise of this CES was once again the focus on domestic robots. Of the 14 humanoid robots that shared the stage with Jensen Huang, 6 were from China, 4 from the USA, and one each from Germany, Norway, Israel, and Canada. The booth of the much-talked-about UNITREE Technology was not large, yet it was crowded with onlookers. Their showcased humanoid and quadruped robots demonstrated such impressive agility that it was astonishing, having completely surpassed human physical capabilities. The robot butler scenes that we've seen only in science fiction movies seem to be just around the corner from becoming a reality.
Made-in-China.com will continue to innovate its services, joining forces with Chinese enterprises in their ventures to global trade fairs, dedicated to uncovering worldwide business opportunities for Chinese suppliers and international buyers, seizing the latest market information, and brokering trade engagements between the two sides. Please look forward to it!