AI helps boost business development in China’s Yiwu
Wire desk byline Sourced from Xinhua, Dawn, Arab News, Anadolu and Minute Mirror. Translated and abridged by the GSRRA Desk.
Sun Lijuan is pictured at the Yiwu International Trade Mart in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, May 20, 2025. Sun Lijuan is among the first merchants to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) for foreign trade at the Yiwu International Trade Mart in Yiwu, an international hub for the production and trade of small commodities. Her shop, Hongsheng Toys, sells lifelike dolls and plush toys to international customers.
In recent years, the rapid development of AI has boosted her orders and helped reduce operational costs. With the help of AI, Sun is able to present product-selling videos in 36 different languages to global viewers. Even the mouth movements of speakers in the videos can be adapted in line with the pronunciation.
Now in the city of Yiwu, nearly 30,000 merchants regularly use various AI tools in their businesses. AI-relevant applications developed in Yiwu alone have accumulated over one billion uses.
In addition to recording product-selling videos, Sun handles all matters related to her business within a 13.5-square-meter shop all year round.
Embracing new technologies such as AI counts as one reason for Sun’s thriving business. She hopes that AI could benefit more Yiwu-based merchants.
(Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)
A colleague of Sun Lijuan writes the script for a product-selling video with the help of an AI tool at the Yiwu International Trade Mart in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)
Sun Lijuan (C) works inside her shop at the Yiwu International Trade Mart in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)
Sun Lijuan (C) and her colleagues make product-selling videos inside her shop at the Yiwu International Trade Mart in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)
A colleague of Sun Lijuan displays a mobile app with an AI-powered virtual persona feature at the Yiwu International Trade Mart in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)
Sun Lijuan displays product-selling videos in different language versions inside her shop at the Yiwu International Trade Mart in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, May 21, 2025.(Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)
Sun Lijuan makes a product-selling video inside her shop at the Yiwu International Trade Mart in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)
Sun Lijuan (R) introduces products to an Indian merchant inside her shop at the Yiwu International Trade Mart in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)
Sun Lijuan combs a doll’s hair inside her shop at the Yiwu International Trade Mart in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang Province, May 20, 2025.(Xinhua/Han Chuanhao)
Reference Link:- https://english.news.cn/20250522/50f24b38084140b99b89497c0c311d27/c.html
Zamir Ahmed Awan is the founder and Chair of the Global Silk Route Research Alliance, a think tank in Islamabad. He studied engineering at Shanghai University in the 1980s, and years later he went back to China as Pakistan's science counsellor in Beijing, from 2010 until 2016, working on science and higher education cooperation between the two countries.…
