Expo highlights China's sustained efforts to boost global digital trade cooperation

HANGZHOU, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- No steering wheel, no pedals and no rearview mirrors. For the fifth consecutive year at the Global Digital Trade Expo, Tesla once again pushed the boundaries of imagination, this time via its fully autonomous Cybercab.

The two-seat Cybercab features butterfly doors and a large interactive touchscreen, relying on camera-based vision and sensors to navigate without human intervention.

This futuristic vehicle was just one glimpse of the AI-driven future on display at this expo. With more than one-third of exhibitors focusing on AI, alongside the collective debut of AI application pilot bases, AI undoubtedly stole the expo's spotlight in 2026.

The fifth Global Digital Trade Expo, held from Sept. 23 to 27 in Hangzhou, a tech hub in east China's Zhejiang Province, attracted over 50,000 participants from 163 countries and regions. It highlighted how AI is reshaping trade patterns and how China is dedicated to promoting global digital trade cooperation.

AI, DIGITAL ECONOMY

From households and industries to urban governance, the expo spotlighted emerging trends and drivers of digital trade in the AI era, accelerating the commercialization of frontier products and technologies for a wider global market.

In the case of urban governance, space data and AI are seeing accelerated integration into practical scenarios. Notably, professional data intelligence provider Merit Interactive released MUMO, an urban traffic large model that fuses high-resolution satellite imagery with ground traffic data.

"Traffic police can leverage the model to simulate urban green wave schemes, comparing queue lengths and traffic capacity under different scenarios to optimize signal control plans," said Fang Yi, CEO of Merit Interactive.

For consumers, AI is becoming more intuitive and personal. AI-powered smart glasses provider Rokid unveiled its second-generation AI glasses at the showpiece in Hangzhou, featuring real-time navigation, instant translation and photography capabilities.

"The AI assistant has evolved to understand what you need," said Ye Ziling, a staff member at the Rokid booth, noting that these new glasses support bidirectional and call translation.

AI is also empowering businesses. Accio Work, an AI agent platform by tech giant Alibaba, allows enterprises to assign roles to AI, automating tasks around the clock.

More than 10 million small and medium-sized enterprises worldwide now run their businesses on Accio Work. Its user count has grown more than 30-fold in a single year.

"In the past, we had to outsource many services. Now, with AI, we can handle much of the work ourselves," said a businessman from Russia. "China's speed in technological innovation and application is amazing."

The 2026 expo featured 170,000 square meters of exhibition space, with international exhibitors accounting for over 20 percent of the total. The number of overseas pavilions also exceeded the combined total of all previous editions.

According to a guideline on boosting reform and innovative development of digital trade released in November 2024, China expects the share of digitally deliverable service trade in its total service trade to exceed 45 percent by 2029 and 50 percent by 2035.

TOKEN ECONOMY

A highlight of this year's expo was the debut of a token-themed zone. It drew crowds of visitors eager to understand tokens -- the basic units AI models use to process information, which have become a barometer of industry development and a key indicator of AI adoption.

In the domestic market, token demand has skyrocketed, partly driven by China's "AI plus" initiative and the explosive growth of agent-based deployment.

As early as March this year, national daily token calls exceeded 140 trillion, representing a more than 1,000-fold surge from 100 billion at the beginning of 2024, according to data released by the National Data Administration.

From computing power infrastructure and mainstream large models like Qwen and DeepSeek to smart hardware, the token-themed zone showcased how tokens are rapidly transforming from technical metrics into tradable digital commodities.

"The zone visualizes abstract AI capabilities, helping participants understand the logic of computing power trade," said Li Yang, director of the Zhejiang International Economic Expo Center, noting that while digital trade traditionally focused on software and data, token services allow computing power to be metered and traded by usage, creating a new form of digital commodity.

Experts believe that by addressing core issues such as metering, pricing and management, token exports can transform China's accumulated expertise from real industrial applications into on-demand intelligent services accessible to global clients.

PLATFORM FOR GLOBAL DIALOGUE

Beyond being a technology showcase, the expo also serves as a crucial bridge for international dialogue and mechanism building.

The China-Arab AI International Cooperation & AFDE First China-Arab Digital Dialogue, which took place during the expo this year, brought together over 200 participants from home and abroad. Seven cooperation projects worth 255 million U.S. dollars were signed, covering various areas, including robotics and smart manufacturing.

China is not only a trade partner but also a helper for the next generation of digital economic development in Arab countries, said Atef Ahmed Helmy, chairman of the General Assembly at the Arab Federation for Digital Economy (AFDE).

The expo this year also witnessed a dialogue on BRICS special economic zones, focusing on practical cooperation. In 2025, the number of Chinese enterprises with trade records with other BRICS members exceeded 300,000 for the first time, rising 8.8 percent year on year.

Also, the China Center for Cooperation on Special Economic Zones in BRICS Countries was launched in Hangzhou last year.

Ali Murtopo Simbolon, deputy minister of the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, said that this center highlights pragmatic cooperation, knowledge exchange and partnership among member states.

"China started building special economic zones early with remarkable results. The zones are playing a significant role in the country's modernization," said Ge Shunqi, a professor at the Institute of Chinese Path to Modernization at Nankai University, located in north China.

"At UNCTAD, we believe digital trade must be open, fair and development-oriented. This requires investment in connectivity and skills and rules that encourage innovation while protecting competition, consumers and trust," said Pedro Manuel Moreno, acting secretary-general of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

"We greatly value our cooperation with China and welcome the role of this expo in encouraging dialogue, partnership and practical solutions," noted Moreno. "UNCTAD stands ready to deepen this cooperation."