130th Canton Fair and China Visa in 2021

130th Canton Fair and China Visa in 2021

The 130th China Import and Export Commodities Fair (Canton Fair) will be held online and offline from October 15th to November 3th, 2021, with a total exhibition period of 20 days.

This Canton Fair will continue to set up 51 exhibition areas according to 16 categories of commodities. Among them, the offline exhibition will be held in three phases according to the usual practice. Each phase will last four days, with a total area of 1,185,000 square meters and about 60,000 standard booths. Representatives of overseas institutions / enterprises in China and domestic purchasers will be invited to attend the fair. The online exhibition will increase the development of offline application scenarios and offline drainage functions.

This is the first return of the Canton fair since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020,at present,the booth map has been publicized on the official website of the Canton Fair.

Please visit:
https://exhibitor.cantonfair.org.cn/?_ga=2.148734068.2102974368.1626850614-55301662.1584962118#/publishSum

At present, the rules for foreigners to enter China are still as follows:
According to the announcement of the state on March 26th, 2020: from 0:00 on March 28th, 2020, foreigners holding currently valid visas and residence permits to enter China will be temporarily suspended. The entry of foreigners with APEC Business travel cards will be suspended. Suspension of port visa, 24 / 72 / 144 hour transit visa exemption, Hainan entry visa exemption, Shanghai cruise visa exemption, 144 hour visa exemption for foreigners from Hong Kong and Macao entering Guangdong, and visa exemption for ASEAN tourist groups entering Guangxi. Entry with diplomatic, official, courtesy and C visa will not be affected (only this). Foreigners who come to China to engage in necessary economic, trade, scientific and technological activities and for urgent humanitarian needs may apply for visas from Chinese embassies and consulates abroad. The entry of foreigners with visas issued after the announcement shall not be affected.

Announcement on September 23th, 2020: from 0:00 on September 28th, 2020, foreigners with valid Chinese work, private affairs and reunion residence permits are allowed to enter the country, and relevant personnel do not need to apply for visas again. If the above three types of residence permits held by foreigners expire after 0:00 on March 28th, 2020, the holder may apply for corresponding visas to Chinese embassies and consulates abroad on the strength of the expired residence permit and relevant materials under the condition that the reasons for coming to China remain unchanged. The above personnel shall strictly abide by the Chinese epidemic prevention management regulations. It was announced on March 26 that other measures will continue to be implemented.

Then at the end of 2020, the Chinese Embassy in the UK issued the notice on temporarily suspending the entry of persons in the UK holding valid Chinese visas and residence permits on November 4th, 2020. Soon, Chinese embassies in Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Russia, Philippines, India, Ukraine and Bangladesh issued announcements to the effect that foreigners in these countries need visas issued after November 3th, 2020 to enter China. Foreigners in these countries are not allowed to enter China with Chinese work, private affairs and reunion residence permits.

Kindly note that the visas of foreigners from these countries between March 28th and November 2th have not lost their effectiveness, but the local embassies and consulates do not allow these foreigners to go to China directly, and they will not get the health declaration (later changed to HDC code). In other words, if foreigners from these countries hold the above three residence visas or visas between March 28th and November 2th, they can enter other countries (such as the United States) to go to China.

Speaking simply,ordinary foreign buyers without residence permits are not allowed to come to China. Well, that is to say, the buyer groups of the Canton Fair in previous years still can not appear in this autumn fair.

The buyers invited by the 130th Canton Fair were originally in China or their local agents. In this way, small buyers from developing countries such as Asia, Africa and Latin America are basically unable to enter this year's autumn Canton Fair.

However, the Organizer of Canton Fair also said that "the online exhibition will increase the development of offline application scenarios and offline drainage functions". I don't know whether it has developed functions that can ensure that buyers who don't come to the exhibition can watch the exhibition online.