It's an innovative way to gain a foothold in the Chinese market. One competition in the United States paves a path for U.S. tech startups to showcase their business models to see if it can work in China. The InnoSTARS competition in San Francisco does just that. CGTN's Mark Niu is at this year's InnoSTARS competition and brings us more.

At the InnoSTARS competition in San Francisco, innovation comes in all shapes and sizes - like this solar balloon energy system.

BING GU, CEO CALIFORNIA SUNLIGHT "Actually, you can fold the balloon and put it in your pocket. The storage unit mainly is for heating, like you collect energy all day long, night time use the energy for heating and cooking."

RoboBev's vision is to have subscribers carry their smart cups and get Italian-quality coffee served in seconds at a solar-powered robotic kiosk like this.

BLAZE SANDERS, CTO ROBO BEV "Version 3 has drones that refill the coffee beans and water. By doing eight trips to the kiosks every day, we can fill both the water and the coffee beans."

MARK NIU SAN FRANCISCO "And here's a copy of the scoring sheet that the contestants are being judged on. Categories like presentation, financials, their team members and exit strategy. And there's something very important here - Does the technology product offered align with current Chinese market needs?

JOHN ROBINSON, CONSULTANT INNOSTARS "InnoSTARS is one of several competitions, the Chinese businesses community has created in the U.S., North America, to generate interest in China. Competitions are a great way to separate companies that are ready from companies that still need more time."

The InnoSTARS competition is supported by both the Chinese and US governments. At competitions across seven U-S states, roughly 40 startups will win an all-expenses paid roadshow trip in China, and compete for the chance to be at the grand finale in Suzhou. Senclo has created this top-rated smart home garage controller. With that device, it wants to allow garage owners to rent out their space -- becoming the Airbnb of garage storage.

BRIAN HOANG, CEO SENCLO "We want to explore the possibility to go into Chinese market as well as investment from Chinese investors to make this happen."

JOHN ROBINSON, CONSULTANT INNOSTARS "It's a China readiness competition. So the technology is usually nothing. They work. The question is, are you ready for action in China."

One candidate is the Utah-based company, IsoTruss, which has developed a carbon-fiber based structure that claims to be 12 times stronger than steel. It's targeting the China market, which it says has the world's largest cell tower needs.

HUNTER WIXOM, VP OF BUSINESS DEVT. ISOTRUSS "If you are going into a city like Shanghai or Beijing, we can put towers on top of buildings without affecting the structural capacity of the building. We can put towers in anywhere causing minimal disturbance to the community. And not to mention pollution is decreased, because CO2 emissions being 70-percent less."

With a detailed plan to seek out manufacturing and strategic partners in China, IsoTRUSS is selected by the judges as one of the winners.

HUNTER WIXOM, VP OF BUSINESS DEVT. ISOTRUSS "I'm way excited. It's such an honor."

The road to China increasingly begins with a competition to bring out the best. Mark Niu, CGTN, San Francisco.