With or without Trump, China’s export machine is remaking itself as hi-tech gadgets dominate Canton fair

The first phase of the latest Canton trade fair, a major event for Chinese exporters seeking to woo overseas buyers for the last six decades, felt like a hi-tech show with thousands of booths displaying smart devices and gadgets.

In contrast to earlier editions when the fair’s shelves were filled with cigarette lighters, shovels or zippers that were relatively cheap and easy to make, the popular products at phase one of the fair, which ended on Wednesday in Guangzhou, formerly called Canton, are such items as virtual reality game stations and massive touch screens.

The booth belonging to Guangzhou NINED Digital Technology, a virtual reality game equipment maker, was one of the busiest in the massive exhibition hall that housed the electronics and mechanical products session of the 121st China Import and Export Fair as potential customers and general visitors queued to try the company’s shooting game device.

Kate Qiu, a sales manager, said the products,with prices as high as US$30,000 per unit, were popular with buyers from Europe and the Middle East.

She said the company expected to triple its sales in 2017 from a year earlier on “a conservative estimate”. The company, based in Guangdong, is hiring virtual reality device engineers from around the world and investing heavily in new product development, Qiu said.