"The number of durian containers in the first seven months has almost matched the total for all of last year," said Li Qianchang, native of Pingxiang, a border county in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, who has been trading fruits since joining his current company in 2020.

For Li, the growing trade between China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) can be read from a tally board hanging at the entrance to his office.

The trend is part of a broader expansion in China-ASEAN cooperation. In the first seven months of this year, Guangxi's imports from ASEAN reached 62.84 billion yuan ($9.4 billion), up 19% year on year. Among major import categories, imports of electromechanical products rose 23.8%, while those of metal ores and concentrates increased 3.4%.

Across the region, China-ASEAN ties are deepening, with trade serving as a key driver of broader cooperation in investment, infrastructure, people-to-people exchanges and regional supply chains. The two sides have been each other's largest trading partners for several consecutive years, with bilateral trade surpassing $1 trillion for the first time in 2025.

Stronger ties fuel trade growth

This year marks the fifth anniversary of the China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. Officials from China and ASEAN member states gathered in Beijing on Tuesday to commemorate the milestone.

"The partnership had proven its value over the past five years by bringing tangible benefits to more than 2 billion people and contributing to peace, stability and prosperity in the region," said ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn at the event.

From the establishment of dialogue relations in 1991 to the elevation of ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2021, China and ASEAN have developed close and multifaceted links.

China has made significant advances in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles and renewable energy, where it has strong capabilities, said Destarata Mustafa, counsellor for political affairs at the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing. "We hope to expand cooperation with China in these fields."

Vietnamese Ambassador to China Pham Thanh Binh, whose country currently chairs the ASEAN Committee in Beijing, said bilateral trade rose 25.6% year on year in the first eight months of 2026 to more than $862 billion.

The figures, he said, demonstrate the depth of ties between the two sides and their shared development opportunities, calling for the comprehensive strategic partnership to continue producing tangible benefits for businesses and people.

China-ASEAN Expo opens new avenues for cooperation

The upcoming 23rd China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Nanning, Guangxi, will provide another platform for that cooperation.

This year's expo will feature several firsts, reflecting an increasing emphasis on technology, two-way demand and business participation.

For the first time, the expo will establish exhibition areas dedicated to the future and the growth of sci-tech companies, where cutting-edge products and newly launched innovations will be showcased.

A new exhibition area will also focus on the needs of ASEAN countries, shifting the emphasis from what Chinese companies can offer to what ASEAN markets are looking for, including technologies and applications.

Another new format will see leading companies bring their upstream and downstream small and medium-sized enterprises to the expo, giving specialized and innovative firms greater exposure to international markets.

AI will be another major feature of this year's expo. For the first time, the event will set up a sector featuring a range of AI hardware and software products, while showcasing AI applications in areas including finance and cross-border financial services.

More than 400 new products, including the Tianzhu-1 satellite, and over 100 new technologies are expected to make their debut at the event.

The expo will also host, for the first time, a special session displaying Thai products for the Chinese market, along with a China-ASEAN AI matchmaking event and a high-level dialogue on coordinated development under the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area.

The new initiatives underscore a shift toward making trade and business the core of the expo, companies the main participants and practical applications a key feature.