Expo highlights China's sustained efforts to boost global digital trade cooperation

The expo's real story is not the Cybercab, but the rapid growth in China's AI adoption. Daily token calls in China exceeded 140 trillion by March 2026, a 1,000-fold surge from early 2024. This reflects aggressive deployment of AI agents and models across industries. Alibaba's Accio Work, for example, now supports over 10 million small and medium-sized enterprises globally, with a 30-fold user increase in one year.

This growth points to China's "AI plus" initiative gaining significant traction domestically. Chinese firms are quickly commercializing frontier AI products, as seen with Merit Interactive's MUMO urban traffic model and Rokid's second-generation AI glasses. The focus on practical applications in urban governance and enterprise automation positions Chinese tech providers to dominate these specific AI segments across Asia.

The thing to watch is whether this domestic token demand translates into exportable AI services. China expects digitally deliverable service trade to exceed 50 percent of its total service trade by 2035. This target depends on how quickly Chinese AI platforms can scale their offerings to international markets, particularly within Southeast Asia, without facing significant regulatory hurdles.