Guilin's 2024 foreign trade climbs, highlighting economic resilience

While Guilin City in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is most widely known as a scenic tourist destination, the city's trade data tells another story – steady economic resilience. In 2024, Guilin's total foreign trade reached 11.39 billion yuan (approximately $1.6 billion), marking an 11.5-percent year-on-year increase. Exports amounted to 10.52 billion yuan ($1.47 billion), up by 13.9 percent, according to its government report in 2024.

In its county-level economies, industries that rarely make headlines are quietly displaying remarkable resilience amid shifting global winds. From Lipu City's massive hanger production lines to Yongfu County's increasingly international monk fruit business, Guilin is quietly expanding its global economic footprint amid the global headwinds.

Sweeteners in the storm

In Yongfu County, monk fruit sweetener businesses operate like small boats in turbulent seas, tossed by global trade currents but never capsizing. Monk fruit, or luohan guo, is native to Guilin in southern China. It has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries for its cooling and throat-soothing properties. But it was only in recent decades that this local specialty made its way onto Western tables.

Guilin GFS Monk Fruit Corporation (GFS), a leading company in the sector in Guilin, derives over half of its total business from monk fruit products, and nearly 50 percent of that comes from the U.S. market. This fact makes every fluctuation in China-U.S. trade policy more than a news item; it's a live stress test for the company's entire business model.

In April, when tariffs soared to a staggering 145 percent between the two countries, the pressure was immense for Lan Fusheng, CEO of GFS, and his team.

Having already weathered the 2018 tariff crisis and drawing on our in-depth understanding of the market, we saw signs of stabilization within just a week, Lan told CGTN. Given China's vast export portfolio to the U.S., where countless industries, including larger players than us, were equally affected by the trade war, we maintained faith that our country would exhaust all capabilities and solutions to address the situation. Now, we're finally seeing daylight at the end of the tunnel, he said.

With a significant number of Americans struggling with obesity and overweight issues, sugar substitutes are big business. Lan believes that as a supplier of what is currently the world's finest monk fruit sweetener product, he is positioned at the heart of this essential market.

Many of its clients, Lan explained, take three to four years to develop a new product, from formulation to commercialization. These long-term investments make switching suppliers or changing formulas prohibitively expensive. So even when prices rise, customers are more likely to work together with the company on cost-sharing solutions than to start over elsewhere.

The breakthrough came in 2010 when GFS's monk fruit extract became the first in the world to receive Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) certification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This milestone opened the door to global expansion and enabled partnerships with major international brands, transforming a once-obscure fruit into a global health ingredient.

Although the U.S. pioneered the international monk fruit market, Lan ultimately realized the dangers of over-dependence. "When a single market accounts for too much of your business, any disruption – regardless of the reason – can deal a significant blow," he observed.

In 2014, nearly 100 percent of the company's sales went to the U.S., with most of that coming from just a few major clients. By 2020, they had reduced U.S. sales to under 50 percent and reliance on key clients to below 40 percent. The U.S. still generates about half of his company's global demand today, so tariffs hit hard, but Lan is confident that they won't knock the firm off its long‑term course.

"At worst, we might endure a few lean years," he said.

'Hanger capital' still hanging on

Known as China's "hanger capital," Lipu produces over 4 billion hangers each year, powered by more than 300 companies. While the majority of this production serves the domestic market, Lipu's manufacturers haven't been immune to the effects of international trade tensions.

Facing uncertainties in international trade, Lipu's businesses have long reduced reliance on the U.S. market, expanded into new regions like Southeast Asia and Europe, and accelerated investment in automated production lines. Technological innovation and in-house R&D became key to building resilience from the inside out.

"Trade friction hasn't really disrupted us," said Mao Huilin, general manager of a hanger company. "Because we invested early in automation and process improvement, we're less vulnerable to short-term market shifts."

For industry veterans like Mo Peng, the true challenge isn't the trade war; it's whether one is ready for it.

"Our clients are more concerned we might stop supplying them because there's no real substitute," he said. "It seems the storm brings us closer to our partners, not further apart."

Behind Lipu's products lies a quiet confidence rooted in decades of experience and a proactive approach to adapting before crises arise.

With more than 30 years in manufacturing, Lipu has grown into a global center for hanger production, supported by a skilled workforce, reliable quality, and deep process expertise. "We're now at the forefront of the global hanger supply chain, which is why we face challenges with confidence, not fear," Mo told CGTN.

"Back in 2018, some tried to shift production to Southeast Asian countries, but their labor quality and output just couldn't compare. Clients even showed us hangers made elsewhere. The finished products and their form just weren't up to standard."

That confidence is also shaped by experience. "None of my kids want to take over the factory. They've seen how hard we've worked all these years," said another factory owner.

"Our country stands tall now, and so do we. Now, we have more leverage. If (our) American clients can't work on our terms, we simply walk away. After this order, I'm done with that client," Mo told CGTN.

Attuned to the shifting current of global trade

In these inland county-level cities, businessmen aren't merely focused on production; they're closely attuned to the shifting currents of global trade. 

"Since 2018, I've personally witnessed at least 10 client companies shut down," Mo said to CGTN.

That instability has made these businesses more cautious. "We're very selective when working with American clients now," Mo said. "Their markets are volatile, and many simply can't meet basic operational requirements. We've had to shift focus and diversify away from the riskiest segments."

"We haven't viewed this trade conflict as a hardship. It's more of an opportunity that pushes us to explore new markets," Liang Xiaoyan, deputy general manager of Sengleng Bio, another monk fruit company, told CGTN. "Even if this part of the business falls through, we'll start over. In a way, we're all back at the same starting line."