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The 23rd China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit will be held from September 17 to 21, 2026, in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The Business and Investment Summit runs September 17-18, while the exhibition opens to the public on September 20-21. This year's expo carries the theme "Sharing CAFTA 3.0 Opportunities, Building a Better Life Together," with a total exhibition area of about 170,000 square meters, roughly 10,000 square meters larger than the previous edition. For the first time, the expo spans three venues: the Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center, the new Nanning South A Community exhibition zone, and the Guilin International Convention and Exhibition Center. The Philippines serves as this year's "Country of Honor," while Changchun in Jilin province has been designated China's "City of Charm" for the event.

CAEXPO was founded in 2004 and has now been held 22 times consecutively. It is a major multilateral economic and trade mechanism co-hosted on a rotating basis by China and the ten ASEAN member states, with China permanently based in Nanning, making it a key window for observing the trajectory of China-ASEAN economic and trade relations. Over more than two decades, CAEXPO has witnessed the entire process of establishing, building and repeatedly upgrading the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA), drawing hundreds of thousands of Chinese and foreign companies to exhibit and attend, and driving extensive cooperation in agriculture, manufacturing, infrastructure and the digital economy. It is widely regarded as China's "Nanning channel" for opening up to and cooperating with ASEAN.

In terms of scale, the total number of exhibiting companies at this year's CAEXPO is expected to exceed 3,000, with more than 30,000 buyers expected to attend. The number of confirmed Fortune Global 500 exhibitors has grown by roughly 30 percent from the previous edition, including China Datang Corporation, Bank of China and Indonesia's state oil company Pertamina. More than 70 "gazelle," "unicorn" and specialized-and-sophisticated small-giant enterprises and single-item manufacturing champions, including DJI and Maiyue Technology, will also make their first appearance in force. Organizers say nearly 500 companies from ASEAN and non-regional countries have already confirmed their participation, with companies from about 25 additional non-regional countries actively applying to attend — reflecting a broader range of participating countries, higher-caliber enterprises and deeper industrial cooperation this year.

On content, this year's CAEXPO introduces several firsts: an "ASEAN Countries' Needs Exhibition Zone" where ASEAN countries pose challenges around artificial intelligence, smart cities, industrial park development and cultural tourism for Chinese companies to address on the spot, testing a new model for precisely matching industrial needs; a first-time "large enterprises leading small ones" exhibiting model built around supply-chain leaders; and a first-ever "AI Supermarket." AI-related displays have been comprehensively upgraded under a "dual-venue, differentiated" layout — the Nanning International Convention and Exhibition Center will showcase core technologies such as large language models and AI chips, with leading firms Huawei and iFlytek participating, while the South A Community zone will focus on applied AI in manufacturing, urban governance, culture and tourism, and education. The expo has also set up dedicated digital economy and green low-carbon zones, with an expected 300 new products and 200 new technologies on display spanning digital technology, smart manufacturing and green, low-carbon industries.

This year's CAEXPO coincides with the fifth anniversary of the China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, established in November 2021, as bilateral economic and trade cooperation enters a new stage of upgrading. According to official Chinese data, bilateral trade between China and ASEAN reached about $1.05 trillion in 2025, up 7.4 percent year on year — the first time bilateral trade has surpassed the $1 trillion mark. China has been ASEAN's largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years, while ASEAN has been China's largest trading partner for six consecutive years. In the first seven months of this year, total China-ASEAN trade reached $744.41 billion, a sharp year-on-year increase of 24.7 percent, raising its share to 21.8 percent of China's total foreign trade over the same period. Analysts say the continued expansion of bilateral trade has created a favorable atmosphere for this year's expo and summit, and underscores the deepening integration of regional industrial and supply chains.

At the level of regional integration mechanisms, this year's CAEXPO and summit place particular emphasis on the implementation of the upgraded China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (CAFTA) 3.0. Negotiations to upgrade CAFTA to version 3.0 were substantively concluded in October 2024, with both sides completing all related technical work by May 2025 before signing the CAFTA 3.0 upgrade protocol, which covers new areas of cooperation including the digital economy, the green economy and supply-chain connectivity, and further reduces tariff and non-tariff barriers. Meanwhile, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the world's largest free trade agreement, has been in effect since 2022 and has now operated for more than three years; in 2024, total intra-RCEP trade flows reached about $5.70 trillion, with tariff-reduction dividends continuing to be released. Industry observers broadly view CAFTA 3.0 and RCEP as mutually reinforcing: the former focuses on deepening and upgrading the bilateral China-ASEAN relationship, while the latter provides a broader regional rules platform; together the two form the “twin wheels” driving economic integration across East Asia and the wider Asia-Pacific — and they form the real backdrop to this year's CAEXPO theme of “sharing CAFTA 3.0 opportunities.”

For Thailand, the deepening of China-ASEAN economic and trade relations carries direct significance. China has been Thailand's largest trading partner and largest export market for agricultural products for 13 consecutive years; according to Thai statistics, bilateral trade between Thailand and China exceeded $40 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up more than 20 percent year on year. Thai specialty products such as jasmine rice, durian and cosmetics have long used the CAEXPO platform to enter the Chinese market, becoming popular goods well known to Chinese consumers. This year, Thai companies will form a delegation to exhibit at CAEXPO, further advancing the upgrading of Thailand-China economic and trade cooperation. Shortly before this year's expo, the "2026 Thailand-China Cooperation Expo" held in Bangkok in late July drew nearly 270 Thai and Chinese companies, focusing on cooperation in technological innovation, trade and investment, green energy and electric vehicles; Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul personally presided over the opening ceremony, saying that Thailand-China relations are now at an important juncture in opening a "new chapter of a golden 50 years" together.

Overall, this year's China-ASEAN Expo serves both as an important window on the new five-year cycle of China-ASEAN cooperation and as a microcosm of the accelerating integration of regional industrial, supply and innovation chains against the backdrop of CAFTA 3.0's implementation and RCEP's deepening rollout. With emerging industries such as artificial intelligence and green energy becoming new highlights of the expo, and innovative formats such as the ASEAN Countries' Needs Exhibition Zone being introduced, this year's CAEXPO is expected to offer more precisely matched cooperation opportunities for enterprises from ASEAN countries, including Thailand, and to set a new tone for China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation over the next five years.