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The 26th China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) was held September 8-11 in Xiamen, Fujian Province, in its largest edition to date. According to official channels including the Ministry of Commerce and Xinhua, this year's fair drew registered delegations from 123 countries and regions, with 60 of them setting up exhibits — a notable expansion over previous editions. Chinese Vice President Han Zheng attended and addressed the opening ceremony, underscoring the importance Beijing attaches to this national investment-promotion platform. In his remarks, Han said President Xi Jinping has repeatedly stressed that China will unswervingly expand high-level opening-up and continue advancing trade and investment liberalization and facilitation; he added that while the world is going through a new period of turbulence and transformation, with uncertainty and instability clearly rising, the historical trend toward openness and cooperation will not change.

This year's fair continued under the permanent theme "Expanding Two-Way Investment, Promoting Global Development Together," organized around three pillars: "Invest in China," "Chinese Investment" and "International Investment." The fair featured 14 specialized exhibition zones spanning 200,000 square meters of exhibition and negotiation space, showcasing new-quality productive forces, the "Silk Road Maritime" shipping and logistics network, and investment opportunities in international supply chains, alongside multiple policy briefings, thematic seminars and project-matching events that gave domestic and overseas investors and companies a platform to connect. As China's only national-level exhibition dedicated to investment, CIFIT has been held every year since its founding in 1997, now reaching its 26th edition, and serves as an important window for observing trends in both inbound and outbound Chinese investment.

In his opening remarks, Han Zheng outlined several concrete measures for stabilizing foreign investment and promoting cooperation going forward. He said China has implemented unilateral zero-tariff policies for 63 countries, has brought foreign-investment access restrictions in manufacturing down to zero, and is steadily expanding openness in service sectors such as telecommunications and healthcare, with Beijing to continue pursuing self-driven opening and more practical measures to facilitate foreign investment in China. The remarks are seen as a concrete signal of China further reinforcing its policy of stabilizing foreign investment and expanding openness, against a backdrop of rising external uncertainty and growing investment protectionism in some countries.

Another new feature of this year's fair was the introduction, for the first time, of a "dual guest country of honor" arrangement, with Finland and Saudi Arabia jointly holding the role — replacing the usual practice of designating a single guest country, and seen as an attempt by CIFIT to expand partnerships with the Nordic region and the Middle East. The fair organized project-matching activities focused on emerging and future industries including artificial intelligence, the low-altitude economy, and green, low-carbon development. As one representative China-Saudi cooperation project, the China-Saudi Gulei ethylene project — a joint venture between Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and the Fujian Energy Petrochemical Group with total investment of 44.8 billion yuan — is under intensive construction near Xiamen and is expected to be completed and brought into operation this year, serving as one of the large joint-venture projects highlighted at this year's fair.

Survey data released during the fair pointed to the state of foreign companies' confidence in the Chinese market. A 2026 annual survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China found that 45% of respondent companies named China as their top global investment priority, and 75% planned to make additional investments in China within 2026, with member companies surveyed planning to allocate roughly $13.79 billion from their China operations for reinvestment over the next three to five years. The figures are seen as concrete evidence that, despite ongoing structural friction in U.S.-China economic and trade relations, multinational companies' long-term confidence in the Chinese market remains solid. The AmCham survey also found that respondent companies' willingness to reinvest in their China operations was closely tied to their assessment of the scale of the Chinese market, the integrity of its supply chains and its innovation ecosystem; while some companies expressed concern about external uncertainties such as tariff policy and export controls, most respondents still regarded China as an indispensable part of their global footprint rather than a production base that could easily be replaced.

The fair also came against the backdrop of the latest shifts in the global cross-border investment landscape. According to the 2026 edition of the World Investment Report, global foreign direct investment grew 6% in 2025 to reach $1.6 trillion after two consecutive years of decline, though the recovery remains fragile and unevenly distributed — the top 20 investment destinations absorbed more than 80% of global FDI, and strategic sectors such as AI infrastructure, semiconductors, critical minerals and the energy transition now account for 44% of the value of global greenfield investment projects, reflecting how global capital is increasingly concentrating in a small number of countries and high-tech fields. Against this backdrop, China's ability to keep reinforcing its position as one of the world's major FDI destinations will depend heavily on whether it can offer a competitive investment environment and industrial ecosystem in strategic emerging sectors such as AI and green energy — one of the deeper reasons this year's fair designated AI, the low-altitude economy and green, low-carbon development as priority areas for project matching.

Analysts say that against this backdrop, China's continued signaling of expanded openness and welcome for foreign investment through platforms such as CIFIT, backed by third-party data such as the AmCham survey affirming foreign companies' confidence in investing in China, carries real significance. On one hand, China is working to consolidate its position in the global cross-border investment landscape and avoid being marginalized as capital increasingly concentrates in a handful of strategic sectors and destinations; on the other, the fair's focus on themes such as new-quality productive forces, the Silk Road Maritime network and the low-altitude economy suggests Beijing is trying to attract higher-quality foreign investment projects through industrial upgrading and regional connectivity, rather than simply chasing a larger volume of inbound investment.

As CIFIT's permanent host city, Xiamen has hosted this national investment-promotion fair for 26 consecutive years, accumulating extensive experience in investment promotion and exhibition organization, and using the platform to continually raise its international profile as a key node city linking the two sides of the Taiwan Strait and along the Maritime Silk Road. This year's fair closed on September 11, and specific investment agreements and project-matching outcomes reached around priority areas such as AI, the low-altitude economy and green, low-carbon development are expected to be implemented and disclosed gradually over the coming months. Observers say that whether through the introduction of the dual guest-country mechanism or the focus on exhibition zones for emerging industries, CIFIT appears to be evolving from a purely investment-promotion platform into a more comprehensive one that also serves policy signaling, industrial matchmaking and dialogue on international rules.