CES 2025, the world’s largest IT and home appliance exhibition, will be held in Las Vegas for four days from January 7 to 10 next year.
Chinese companies that received invitations to “CES 2025” are on the verge of being absent due to the U.S. refusal to issue entry visas.
According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) and China’s state-run English newspaper Global Times on the 2nd, many employees of Chinese companies participating in CES are reported to be denied U.S. visas about a month before the opening.
Of the 4,000 companies participating in CES, China is estimated to account for 30%, which is currently considered unprecedented.
A technology marketer working in Beijing, China, told SCMP, “I showed the CES invitation during a visa interview at the U.S. Embassy in China, and the person in charge did not seem to consider it.”
Chris Pereira, founder of the New York-based consulting firm iMfact, pointed out, “As a result of a survey of Chinese companies wishing to expand overseas markets, half of 40 said they were experiencing employees’ refusal to issue visas,” adding, “Visas were issued to participate in CES even during COVID-19.”
A CES spokesperson also said, “We are aware that visa applications for CES participants from China have been denied.”
So far, the U.S. government has not made an official position.
The SCMP pointed out that the visa denial occurred at a time of heightened U.S.-China conflict, with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatening to impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports.
The Global Times urged the U.S. government to lower the barriers to visa issuance to promote normal human and business exchanges between the two countries in an editorial titled, “The U.S. State Department should respond quickly to large-scale visa denial.”
“Since such a large-scale visa denial is unusual, even in the United States, there are claims that doubt political motives,” he added. “If ‘de-Chineseization’ proceeds at CES, we doubt that the fair will maintain its status as a representative international event.”
“If the U.S. takes such a closed and protectionist attitude in this area, where the growth of Chinese companies has been prominent in recent years, concerns about uncertainty in global supply chain safety will grow,” he stressed.
SOPHIA KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
