While the global textile industry is still digesting the twin pressures of geopolitical tensions and fragmented demand, Keqiao, a textile hub in eastern China, has offered its own answer with a set of figures: regional GDP reached 122 billion yuan in the first half of the year, up 7.0% year-on-year; exports from January to July totaled 110.34 billion yuan, an increase of 16%; and the turnover of the China Light Textile City reached 268.36 billion yuan, up 9.1%. These public figures, released by local statistics and market authorities, coincide with the press conference for the 9th World Textile Merchants Conference (WTMC) in 2026, making it hard for industry observers not to connect the two.
Background
The WTMC, first held in 2018 and now in its ninth edition, has evolved in tandem with the shifting center of gravity in the global textile industry. The 2026 edition is scheduled for November 6 in Keqiao, under the theme 'Interconnection of Warp and Weft · Smartly Enabling a New Future for Global Textiles,' focusing on digital transformation, green low-carbon development, and open cooperation. Notably, this year's conference is placed within the context of the opening year of China's 15th Five-Year Plan, and the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee has explicitly listed the textile industry as a key sector for 'optimization and upgrading'—a signal that policy-makers now view textiles not as a legacy manufacturing sector but as a strategic priority for high-end evolution.
According to the organizing committee, the conference will invite representatives from international institutions, industry associations, research bodies, and leading enterprises from over 60 countries and regions, with experts and industry leaders from China, the US, the UK, France, Germany, and Italy in attendance. Such a large-scale international gathering is uncommon in an era of rising anti-globalization sentiment. The underlying logic is that the deep coupling of the textile supply chain means no single market can thrive in isolation, and Keqiao—as one of the world's largest textile distribution centers—offers the best vantage point to observe this interdependence.
Industry Impact
Sun Ruizhe, president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, offered three judgments at the press conference that effectively outline the core variables for the industry over the next five years. First, industrial layout is shifting from efficiency-first to a balance of security and resilience—meaning that the supply chain model optimized for extreme cost reduction over the past three decades will give way to a more regionally distributed approach focused on risk resistance. For buyers, this implies that single-source supply strategies are becoming increasingly risky. Second, artificial intelligence is moving from point-specific empowerment to full-chain reshaping—from fiber R&D and fabric design to production scheduling and marketing forecasting, AI is no longer just a supporting tool but an infrastructure that redefines the underlying logic of the entire value chain. Third, green development is transitioning from conceptual consensus to hard constraints—with regulations like the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism taking effect, carbon footprint accounting is no longer a decorative chapter in corporate social responsibility reports but a direct factor in export access and tariff costs.
Keqiao's 'Three World-Class' goals—a world-class market, a world-class industrial base, and a world-class sci-tech innovation platform—can be seen as a local response to these industry trends. Concrete actions include micro-renovation and quality enhancement of aging market facilities, fostering 'market-plus' integrated business models, constructing a '3+X' high-level innovation platform matrix, deepening the 'university + platform + enterprise + supply chain' quadruple linkage, and continuing the 'Silk Road Keqiao · Spreading Fabrics Globally' initiative to expand overseas marketing networks. The essence of these moves is to elevate Keqiao from a pure trading hub to a source of rule-setting and standard output.
For foreign trade enterprises, the most noteworthy signal is the planned release of the '2027 World Textile Industry Trend Outlook' during the conference. Choosing to publish this cross-year report in 2026 is clearly intended to provide forward-looking reference for industrial decisions during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Combined with Yan Yan's five development dimensions—original technological breakthroughs, advancement up the value chain, green standard building, industrial internet platforms, and participation in global governance—it is foreseeable that policy resources and market opportunities in the coming years will tilt toward enterprises with technological reserves and green certification capabilities.