Global Expansion Frontline | China's 240-hour transit visa-free "circle of friends" expands to 57 countries; Europe's accelerated automotive electrif

Overseas Development Highlights

China's 240-hour Transit Visa-free "Circle of Friends" Expands to 57 Countries

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, August 20 - The National Immigration Administration released an announcement on August 20, stating that from August 20, 2026, citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam can apply for the 240-hour transit visa-free policy and Hainan's 30-day visa-free entry policy to enter China. So far, the number of countries eligible for the 240-hour transit visa-free policy has increased to 57, and the number of countries eligible for Hainan's 30-day visa-free entry policy has risen to 61.

Citizens of Kyrgyzstan and Vietnam holding ordinary passports and connecting tickets with confirmed dates and itineraries, who transit through China to a third country or region, can enter China visa-free via 65 open ports including Beijing and Shanghai, and stay within the specified areas for no more than 240 hours visa-free. Citizens of the two countries holding ordinary passports can enter China via open ports in Hainan Province, and stay within the administrative region of Hainan Province for no more than 30 days visa-free. During the stay under the above two visa-free policies, they can engage in short-term activities such as tourism, trade, visits, and visiting relatives. Activities that require prior approval such as work, study, and news interviews still need to apply for visas before coming to China. (Xinhua News Agency)

2026 APEC Customs and Business Dialogue Held in Dalian

The APEC Customs and Business Dialogue was held in Dalian from August 20 to 21. All parties discussed cooperation paths to cope with risks and challenges under the new global economic and trade situation, and maintain the security, stability and smoothness of the Asia-Pacific supply chain. Sun Meijun, Director General of the General Administration of Customs, said that we will continue to carry out special actions for cross-border trade facilitation, simplify customs procedures, and allow more high-quality global goods to enter China's large market faster. (CCTV News)

Deep Cultivation in the New Track of Cultural Overseas Expansion — Qiantang Launches Special Investigation and Symposium for Cultural "New Three Categories" Enterprises

To seize the development opportunities of the cultural industry going global and strengthen the characteristic industry of Qiantang's cultural "New Three Categories", recently, Li Jun, Deputy Director of Qiantang New Area Management Committee, member of the Leading Party Members' Group of the district government, and Deputy District Head, led a team to visit cultural enterprises in the jurisdiction and organized a special exchange symposium. At the meeting, representatives of 7 cultural enterprises including Jiuzhou Culture, SunnySundi and Tarsus, as well as the person in charge of Qiantang Micro Drama Village gathered together, introduced their respective characteristics and advantages in overseas business layout, focused on core issues such as overseas platform operation and cross-border copyright protection, faced the blocking points and difficulties in industrial development, and actively offered suggestions.

In the next step, Qiantang District will take this investigation and symposium as an opportunity to establish a regular contact and service mechanism for cultural enterprises going global, track and implement the enterprise demands and development suggestions collected at this symposium, continuously optimize the business environment for industrial development, help local cultural enterprises expand overseas markets, and promote the high-quality overseas development of Qiantang's cultural "New Three Categories" industry. (Qiantang Commerce)

New Market Insights

Hanmi Semiconductor to Invest 130 Billion Won to Build Its Largest Factory

Hanmi Semiconductor said in a statement that it plans to invest 130 billion won to build its largest factory ever in Incheon to expand the production of artificial intelligence semiconductor equipment. The company will spend 56 billion won to acquire an existing factory building in Incheon and renovate it into its 8th factory, which is expected to start mass production in the second quarter of 2027. The factory will produce TC bonders and hybrid bonders for HBM, as well as 2.5D packaging equipment, BOC and COB packaging equipment for high-performance memory. The company said this will combine its existing production facilities with the world's largest HBM TC and hybrid bonder production base to form the world's largest production base. (Sina Finance)

China's Total Import and Export Volume with Other APEC Economies Exceeds 18 Trillion Yuan in the First 7 Months of This Year

It was learned from the 2026 APEC Customs and Business Dialogue that in the first 7 months of this year, the total import and export volume between China and other APEC economies reached 18.03 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21%. At present, the total size of the Asia-Pacific economy has exceeded 60% of the global total, and the total trade volume is close to half of the global total. In the first 7 months of this year, the growth rate of China's imports and exports with other APEC economies was higher than the overall level of China's goods trade in the same period, showing the huge potential of regional economic cooperation. (CCTV News)

Europe's Accelerated Automotive Electrification Transformation Challenges the Traditional Industrial Pattern

At present, the European automotive industry is accelerating the electrification transformation. Industry insiders believe that the European automotive industry is undergoing systematic restructuring in production, investment and industrial chain. This process is not only related to the future pattern of the European automotive industry, but also will test the global competitiveness of European automobile manufacturing. Overall, the new energy vehicle market in Europe is expanding rapidly. The latest data from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association shows that in the first half of 2026, the number of new car registrations in the European Union increased by 5.7% year-on-year, the number of pure electric vehicle registrations reached 1.221 million, and the market share rose to 20.7%, higher than 15.6% in the same period of the previous year; at the same time, the combined market share of gasoline and diesel cars dropped to 29.7%, lower than 37.8% in the same period last year. By country, in the first half of this year, the registrations of pure electric vehicles in France and Germany increased by 62.9% and 48% year-on-year respectively. (36Kr)

Corporate Updates

Tencent Cloud Expands Its Presence in Malaysia, Announces Service Launch Plan in Johor

On August 18, Tencent Cloud announced that it will launch cloud services in Johor, Malaysia, with the first phase planning to set up three availability zones, and simultaneously reach a series of cooperation with local enterprises and institutions such as Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Boost and Genting Plantations Group. This is Tencent Cloud's first service launch in Malaysia. After the service goes online, Johor will become an important node of Tencent Cloud in Southeast Asia, and local enterprises can deploy AI-related businesses nearby. (Jiemian News)

Amazon Plans to Expand Its Drone Delivery Service to Nearly 500 Towns in the U.S. This Year

Local time on August 19, Amazon said that its Prime Air drone delivery service is expanding rapidly, and it plans to cover nearly 500 cities and towns in the United States by the end of 2026, which is six times larger than the current delivery scale. (Sina Finance)

An Conghui, CEO of Geely Holding: More Than 60% of Geely Auto's Sales Will Come from Overseas Markets in the Future

At Geely Auto's 2026 mid-term performance meeting, An Conghui, CEO of Geely Holding Group, said that in the first half of 2026, Geely's sales increased by 158% year-on-year, and it is challenging the goal of annual overseas sales of 1 million units. Geely Auto's long-term strategy is to achieve two-thirds of its sales from overseas markets. Geely Holding Group will also coordinate the resources of all brands within the group and external strategic partners to achieve joint investment, joint development, shared production capacity and shared local supply chain system. An Conghui revealed that in the future, Volvo's European factories will be built into a production base for Geely Holding's high-end luxury brands in Europe; Proton's Malaysian factory will be built into a Southeast Asian production base, with production capacity increased from 200,000 to 500,000 units; Ford's Spanish factory with a production capacity of 500,000 units will produce Geely Galaxy and Lynk & Co products, and the first product will be launched in 2028. In addition, Geely's overseas production bases also include factories in Brazil, South Korea and other regions in South America in cooperation with Renault. (CLSA)

Industry Trends

Waste Cooking Oil from Restaurants Gains Huge Value After Recycling, Export Orders Are Scheduled to Next Year

In the new energy enterprise park in Lianyungang, Jiangsu, hundreds of oil tankers are busy shuttling every day. About 2,000 tons of waste grease from food waste treatment plants across the country are transported to the park every day, and achieve high-value transformation after fine processing. This kind of recycled raw material has a wide range of uses, and can produce biodiesel, sustainable aviation fuel, detergents, industrial lubricants, etc., to realize resource recycling. According to Gu Guangyang, Chairman of Jiangsu Lianyungang Willes New Energy Co., Ltd., after the waste cooking oil enters the factory, it goes through multiple processes such as heating, precipitation, centrifugation and filtration to effectively reduce impurities such as metals, phosphorus, chlorine and nitrogen in the grease, and becomes high-quality industrial mixed oil after purification. It is understood that since the beginning of this year, the output of industrial mixed oil of this enterprise has exceeded 350,000 tons, and half of the products are sold to overseas markets. Gu Guangyang said that the enterprise's export volume in the first half of the year increased by 20% year-on-year, and the price continued to rise. The price was about 7,000 yuan per ton at the beginning of the year, and rose to 7,800 yuan in July, with an increase of nearly 10% in half a year. The enterprise is now operating at full capacity, and the orders have been scheduled to 2027. The third-phase project will be put into operation early next year, and the annual production capacity will be close to 1 million tons by then. (CCTV Finance)

Tax Authorities Provide Full Lifecycle Guidance to Help Robot Enterprises Solve Tax-related Problems

Robots are known as "the pearl on the top of the manufacturing crown". In the process of industrial upgrading and innovation, enterprises have increasingly strong demands for tax compliance practices and policy adaptation. During the 2026 World Robot Conference, reporters visited a number of robot enterprises and learned that in the process of production and operation, robot enterprises are faced with challenges such as the interweaving of R&D and production links, and the difficulty in clearly dividing tax-related boundaries. In addition, in the process of going global, enterprises are also faced with difficulties such as large differences in tax systems of various countries and complex cross-border tax-related processing. Tax authorities provide full lifecycle tax-related guidance for robot enterprises, release policy dividends through compliant declaration, help enterprises solve complex tax-related problems, and have become an indispensable and important force boosting the development of the robot industry. (Securities Times)

Domestic Electric Excavators Are Ordered Globally

At present, China has become the world's largest producer and seller of construction machinery. In the first half of this year, China's export value of construction machinery increased by 21.7% year-on-year, and the export scale continued to expand. In Liugong's intelligent excavator factory, a batch of electric excavators are being produced intensively, which will be delivered to overseas mines soon. Compared with fuel-powered equipment, the energy consumption of these electric construction machinery is only one-third. In the first 7 months of this year, the number of excavators produced offline per month in the factory increased by more than 40% year-on-year, and the products have been sold to more than 170 countries and regions. Intelligence and greenness are becoming new advantages for Chinese construction machinery to expand overseas markets. (CCTV Finance)

This article is from the WeChat public account "Zhejiang Enterprises Overseas Integrated Service Port".