The “International Consumer Electronics Show” (CES), founded in 1967, is likely to lose its “internationality” soon. Because this exhibition now actually excludes China, the world’s largest consumer electronics producer.
CES is the world’s largest and most influential consumer electronics exhibition, held in Las Vegas, USA every January. Once upon a time, this exhibition exhibited mankind’s first video recorder, the first home computer, the first camera, and the first DVD.
At that time, these advanced inventions came from developed countries such as the United States and Japan. Chinese families once regarded these home appliances as luxury goods and wanted to own them.
However, today’s CES is no longer the same as it was in the last century. Chinese companies have become the protagonists of CES in recent years. More than one-third of the more than 4,000 companies participating in the exhibition are from China. Especially after 2010, a considerable number of important products in the exhibition were first launched by Chinese companies. Take the 2024 exhibition as an example. Smart homes and smart cars from China are unique and have amazed the overseas market with their strength.
This makes the United States a little unhappy. They organized an exhibition, but China stole the limelight. The uncle can tolerate it, but the aunt can’t. The United States decided to play some tricks to save the face of the great United States.
So, a strange thing happened: the 2025 CES exhibition will be held in Las Vegas from January 7 to 10, but the visas of the relevant exhibitors were blocked by the United States.
For this reason, on December 2, the Global Times issued another commentary, asking the US government to solve the visa problem of Chinese personnel participating in the “International Consumer Electronics Show” as soon as possible.
The article pointed out: “We urge the US State Department to verify the relevant reports as soon as possible, reduce policy barriers such as visas and entry, create convenience for normal private business and industrial exchanges between the two countries, and implement the consensus of the two heads of state in action.”
This article is aimed at the United States’ repeated use of its hegemony and visas as a weapon to embarrass people from various countries. This cannot but be said to be an act without a bottom line.
According to feedback from industry insiders, the scale of visa rejections for participants this time is unprecedented, with the proportion of visa rejections reaching more than 90%, which is a blow to Chinese companies that are looking forward to expanding overseas markets and displaying cutting-edge scientific and technological achievements with the help of this world-renowned exhibition.
Participants attending CES apply for a US B1 business visa, which is valid for up to 10 years. When applying, you need to show an invitation letter from a US company. The more well-known the company or the well-known exhibition, the greater the chance of approval. But this year’s situation is completely different. Although the applicant has a booth confirmation and invitation issued by CES, he was still denied a US visa.
A 28-year-old technology marketer in Beijing recalled that during the visa interview at the US Embassy, she showed the invitation letter and told the interviewer “I want to visit customers in the United States and attend CES”, but was still rejected.
This time, more than 1,000 Chinese companies have paid registration fees and signed various related contracts with service providers. If the company is unable to participate in the exhibition due to visa barriers, the human, material and financial resources invested by the company will be wasted, which will bring huge losses to the company.
The United States is a habitual offender in using visas as a weapon against other countries. They have used this weapon many times before to achieve various different purposes.
Take the International Consumer Electronics Show as an example. In addition to using visas as a weapon to prevent China from participating, the United States also prevented Russia from participating. After all, it is organized by the United States and the United States has the final say. In 2023, CES will have more than 3,000 exhibitors from more than 170 countries and regions participating in the exhibition. The scale of the exhibition has recovered and exceeded the level of 2019 before the epidemic. However, the organizers of the exhibition refused to issue an invitation letter to any Russian technology company to participate in the exhibition, and finally none of the Russians came.
And using visas to suppress Chinese people is a consistent practice of the United States. In recent years, the United States has frequently taken measures such as refusing visas, delaying visa applications, revoking long-term visas to the United States, and interrogating and harassing Chinese scholars, students, business people and scientific and technological personnel to the United States, obstructing normal cultural exchanges and personnel exchanges between China and the United States. This is simply the “closed-door policy” of the new era!
For example, in the field of aerospace, the United States has always been worried about China “stealing technology” and has repeatedly used visas to prevent Chinese researchers from participating in international conferences held in the United States.
In March 2017, Yu Guobin, deputy director of the China Lunar Exploration and Space Engineering Center, failed to attend the 48th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference held in Texas, USA, due to the visa rejection by the United States.
In October 2019, the United States prevented the Chinese delegation from attending the 70th International Astronautical Federation Conference by not issuing visas.
The United States also took advantage of the fact that the United Nations headquarters is located in its own country and used visa weapons to suppress countries that are not on good terms with it, seriously interfering with the normal work of the United Nations. The United States has repeatedly refused to issue visas to representatives of Russia, Iran and other countries, making it impossible for them to speak for their countries internationally.
For Russia, one of the “five permanent members”, the United States still took action. Not only did it delay visas many times, but it also tried to use visas in April 2023 to prevent Russia from serving as the rotating presidency of the Security Council in April. Finally, after a wave of protests, the United States reluctantly agreed.
So, why did the United States want to do something weird to the corporate personnel participating in CES this time? There are several reasons.
First, the United States is inferior. As a manufacturing powerhouse, China has been far ahead of the world in consumer electronics. The recently released Huawei Mate70 is a star of consumer electronics products, surpassing Apple in all aspects. Not to mention all kinds of black technology-enabled appliances, drones, electric cars, etc. The best way to keep the United States as the star of the conference is for China not to participate.
Secondly, this is to suppress the development of Chinese high-tech companies. Before this conference, Huawei, DJI and a series of Chinese semiconductor companies failed to participate in the exhibition at the beginning of this year due to unilateral sanctions from the United States. And now this wave of indiscriminate visa rejections is unprecedented, which means that the old state of American trade protectionism has returned, with the aim of preventing Chinese companies from interacting with other countries, especially in the high-tech field.
Finally, this is also a token of allegiance from US government officials to the Trump administration. Faced with the “China era” in the field of consumer electronics, some American politicians are obviously unable to sit still, and are constantly accelerating the “decoupling and breaking of the chain” between the United States and China in the fields of semiconductors and communication equipment. Musk’s “Government Efficiency Department” took office, and 70% of the staff were among those to be laid off, which naturally made people panic. Who knows if this is the last month to receive salary? So, hurry up and make some achievements to show loyalty.
However, this plan of the United States is doomed to fail, because refusing the participation of Chinese companies will have limited losses for Chinese companies, but it will be a fatal blow to the CES conference. The International Consumer Electronics Show without China is like talking about oil production without Saudi Arabia. If you want to “de-Sinicize” everywhere, then whether this CES can still keep the title of “the world’s largest” is probably a question mark.
The United States “weaponized” the visa issue and hindered normal international exchanges and cooperation, which will inevitably be despised by all countries. In the end, the CES exhibition may become an exhibition where the United States and its allies talk to themselves, and permanently lose the characteristics of “internationalization”. China is preparing to hold its own consumer electronics show and is ready to open its doors to welcome merchants from all over the world. The United States’ “decoupling and chain breaking” has no tricks for this. As long as we become strong, we don’t have to worry about the United States not issuing visas. This little trick is really nothing!