Shenzhen tech fair a window into how Chinese firms are reducing reliance on US, reaching out to Europe

Americans were conspicuously absent at one of China’s biggest technology shows last week – the only real US presence was a delegation from the city of Houston, a sister city to Shenzhen, which hosted the event.

The reduced US presence at the China Hi-Tech Fair, which ran for five days through Sunday, was made up for elsewhere, with a record 44 foreign delegations attending from countries such as Russia, Iran and Hungary, including first time visitors from Austria and Sweden.

As is now the norm for such events in China, facial recognition screened registered visitors before they entered the exhibition, which covered 105,000 square metres (equivalent to 15 football fields).

The fair, which has a 20-year history and saw its first major US presence in 2007, showcased technologies at the centre of global cutthroat competition amid an ongoing trade war between China and the US, including semiconductors, 5G and AI.

Washington has used national security and human rights concerns as reasons to curtail China's access to American technology, by placing Chinese tech giants like Huawei, Hikvision and SenseTime on its Entity List which bans them from purchasing US products without permission.

It was not surprising, then, to hear Chinese companies at the fair talk up solutions to help reduce reliance on US technology, while extending a welcome mat to the new European suppliers attending the event.