Editor's note: Azhar Azam works in a private organization as a market & business analyst and writes about geopolitical issues and regional conflicts. The article reflects the author's opinions, and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

Increased imports are routinely considered virulent for the economy because of their ripple effects such as depleted foreign exchange reserves, trade imbalances, and bigger threats to the domestic manufacturers. All the governments, therefore, use tariff-like trade irritants to slash their imports to secure financial capitals and protect local businesses.

In addition, rarely there are economies in the world that hold the valor to voluntarily open up their market for other countries, fearing that the greater foreign excess might jeopardize their homegrown agricultural and industrial sectors.

China thinks differently. It has never been short of taking bold measures, quite identical in line with priorities to push the country's exports, to ascend its imports. Beijing audacious move to give greater access to foreign companies – from small startups of the developing countries to global developed conglomerates – to showcase their products in the diversified Chinese market is astounding and seldom seen.

At the Belt and Road Forum in May 2017, Chinese President Xi Jinping announcement to host the inaugural import exhibition, China International Import Expo (CIIE), pledged to expand the country's import competitive base by allowing foreign countries "to board the train of China's development."

The exhibition, marked with the watchword "New Era, Shared Future" warbled the massive Chinese endeavor to inject vitality in the global economic growth by driving the trade liberalization and facilitation and providing the platform to all countries to enter into the vast import market.

AeroMobil flying car, Leonardo helicopters, world's smallest Medtronic heart pacemaker, Jimmy Choo's diamond-crushed shoes, UPM wood-based renewable diesel BioVerna eco-friendly car, Westcom's bio-toilets that turn waste into fertilizer, and Nannini's presbyopic foldable glasses were some of innovative products displayed in the first expo, which saw contracts signed worth 57.83 billion U.S. dollars.

The second CIIE, being held from November 5 to November 10 in Shanghai, has gained substantial importance in the aftermath of global economic slowdown and China-U.S. trade war. Through CIIE 2019, Beijing is set to nurse the global slump by boosting its imports of agriculture, consumer, and components products.

China touts the initiative as part of its efforts to stabilize the foreign trade, improve its policies on tax rebates, trade finance, and insurance, and ease restrictions for capital account transactions. In other words, this year's import expo could stir the global economic recession, which has been rattled by tariff wars across the world.

Beijing's new development phase – of increased consumption, improved living standards, and enhanced technological growth backed by the largest world's population and second-largest economy of the world – poses enormous growth potential for imports and consumption and provides technology companies the pitch to expand their footprint in the colossal Chinese market.

U.S. tech giants are not going to miss the unique prospect. Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram are among the 192 U.S. companies taking part in CIIE 2019. Though both the U.S. companies are not accessible in China, the world's largest social media platform hopes to introduce its virtual reality devices, such as Oculus and the related applications in the show.

As other American companies like General Electric would present its solution for clean energy and other products, and Qualcomm is likely demonstrate its cooperation achievements with Chinese companies in 5G cell phones, internet of things, artificial intelligence, and smart cities – China is extending a more coherent and more pliant cooperation with the U.S.

Calling the CIIE "an innovative approach that no country has ever tried before to increase imports," professor of economics Khairy Tourk from Stuart School of Business of Illinois Institute of Technology further said "China is behaving as a responsible global stakeholder."

Besides, with Xi's presence and the invaluable Chinese promotion of the exhibition, it has assured the world that China is committed to further open up its market for the global products and services and share its development dividends with other countries.

The second successive CIIE arrangement by Beijing and large-scale participation of the foreign countries and global enterprises manifestly demonstrate how profoundly China has volunteered itself for the betterment of trade relations and revival of the global economic growth in the face of growing trade tensions.

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