By Stephanie LI丨SFC, 21st Century Business Herald

In the spring of 2026, as the “Guangdong Goods Global Reach” campaign launched in Foshan with a flourish of live-streamed home-appliance promotions, something profound was unfolding.

Beyond the flashing screens and surging sales figures lay a quiet revolution: products born in the Pearl River Delta were no longer merely filling shelves—they were reshaping households, imaginations, and economies across the planet.

From drones soaring over African savannas to smart air conditioners humming in European living rooms, from lychee-infused ice creams delighting North American taste buds to foldable smartphones defining the future of mobility, “Guangdong-made” has become a global synonym for quality, ingenuity, and emotional resonance.

Guangdong's unshakable status as a leader in China's foreign trade is evident in the numbers. In 2025, the province's total import and export volume of goods reached 9.49 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%, hitting a record high and maintaining its top position nationwide for 40 consecutive years. It contributed 24.1% to China's total foreign trade growth, ranking first in the country, with exports and imports accounting for 22.4% and 18.7% of the national total respectively.

As a pilot zone for reform and opening-up, Guangdong has leveraged policies in free trade zones and comprehensive bonded areas to optimize the business environment, with bonded logistics imports and exports reaching 1.93 trillion yuan in 2025, accounting for over 20% of the total foreign trade volume for the first time.

The roots of this success stretch back to the dawn of China’s reform and opening-up, while its geographical advantage—backing onto the Nanling Mountains, facing the South China Sea, blessed with deep-water ports and proximity to Hong Kong—offers unmatched logistical grace. The establishment of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area further amplified these advantages, weaving together policy innovation, cross-border capital flows, and world-class infrastructure into a single, dynamic ecosystem.

Yet geography and policy alone do not explain the leap from low-cost assembler to global technology leader. The true transformation lies in Guangdong’s relentless industrial upgrading. What began as labor-intensive OEM production evolved through absorption, imitation, and finally autonomous innovation.

Today, the province accounts for roughly 70 percent of the world’s consumer-grade drones led by DJI, over 40 percent of China’s industrial robots, and a commanding share of smartphones, smart wearables, and new-energy vehicles. BYD’s electric vehicles surged 145 percent in overseas sales in 2025, reaching 1.05 million units and capturing leading positions in multiple markets. Midea and Gree derive more than 40 percent of revenue from abroad; OPPO and vivo each send over 60 percent of their phones overseas; Transsion dominates emerging markets with 90 percent of sales outside China.

At CES 2026 in Las Vegas, more than 530 Guangdong exhibitors—outnumbering many entire national delegations—showcased AI glasses, intelligent wearables, and next-generation robotics, proving that the province has moved decisively from “Made in Guangdong” to “Created in Guangdong.”

This shift was not painless. It demanded heavy investment in R&D, the nurturing of industrial clusters, and a cultural embrace of continuous iteration. Shenzhen, often called “China’s Silicon Valley,” exemplifies the model: a complete supply chain married to lightning-fast commercialization turns global breakthroughs into market-ready products almost overnight. Meanwhile, traditional manufacturing heartlands such as Foshan’s home appliances, Dongguan’s precision components, and Zhongshan’s lighting have reinvented themselves through intelligent factories, green technologies, and AI-driven optimization. The result is a manufacturing system that delivers not just scale and cost efficiency, but superior quality, sustainability, and intelligence—attributes that increasingly define global competitiveness.

What truly sets Guangdong goods apart, however, is their ability to carry cultural warmth across borders. The province has masterfully fused technological prowess with the deep heritage of Lingnan culture. Maoming’s lychees, marketed as the “Fruit of Oriental Love,” travel the world with stories of romance and prosperity. Shunde’s potted vegetables and Chen Cun’s kumquats arrive with cards recounting their auspicious meanings. Poon Yuen’s wife cakes are reformulated for overseas palates yet retain their traditional soul. These products evoke nostalgia for overseas Chinese communities and invite newcomers to share in centuries-old rituals of family and fortune.

This cultural bridge is strengthened immeasurably by Guangdong’s unique relationship with the global Chinese emigrants. Millions of overseas Chinese trace their roots to the province; they serve as natural ambassadors, cultural translators, and trusted distributors. From Southeast Asian night markets to North American Chinatowns, Guangdong goods arrive as familiar treasures and extensions of home. The “Global Red Envelope” campaign of 2026 cleverly harnessed this emotional affinity, transforming the traditional “hongbao” into a symbol of Guangdong’s goodwill toward the world: a red packet of prosperity delivered through both products and stories.

As Guangdong goods continue their journey outward, they carry more than hardware and software. They bear the imprint of a people who have learned to blend ancient wisdom with cutting-edge ambition, openness with resilience, and profit with purpose. In doing so, they remind the world that true globalization is a shared pursuit of better lives instead of a zero-sum game of extraction.

Editor: LI Yanxia

Host: Stephanie LI

Writer: Stephanie LI

Sound Editor: Stephanie LI

Graphic Designer: ZHENG Wenjing, LIAO Yuanni

Produced by 21st Century Business Herald 

Presented by SFC