Where will the DefenPol China exhibition take place?

The exhibition will be held in Guangzhou, CHN.

When is the DefenPol China exhibition scheduled?

The exhibition is scheduled for several days in the summer.

Guangzhou International Defense and Security Foreign Trade Exhibition (DefenPol China) 2027

Name: Guangzhou International Defense and Security Foreign Trade Exhibition (DefenPol China) 2027
Start: 2027-07-08T00:00:00Z
End: 2027-07-10T00:00:00Z
Location: Guangzhou

Jul 8–10, 2027Guangzhou, ChinaIn-person

Registration open

The Guangzhou International Defense and Security Foreign Trade Exhibition, known as DefenPol China, is an upcoming event scheduled to take place in Guangzhou, China. This exhibition serves as a significant platform for showcasing advancements in defense and security technologies, fostering international trade, and facilitating discussions among industry leaders and policymakers. The event is set to occur over several days in the summer, bringing together a diverse array of participants from the global defense sector.

Committees & topics

Topics
Global Security and Defense Cooperation · Air Power and the Future of Aerial Combat · Defense Policy, Doctrine, and Strategic Posture · Defense Manufacturing and Industrial Base Resilience · Command, Control, Communications, and Battlefield Networks (C4ISR)

Why it matters

The exhibition's location in Guangzhou, CHN, places it at the heart of a rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape. CHN's increasing influence in global security matters, coupled with its significant advancements in defense technology, makes this event a crucial barometer for understanding future trends in military and security capabilities. For international observers, it offers a rare glimpse into CHN's strategic priorities and its engagement with global defense markets.

Furthermore, the event provides a unique opportunity for various nations to engage in defense diplomacy and explore potential collaborations. In an era of complex global challenges, from cybersecurity threats to regional conflicts, platforms like DefenPol China are essential for fostering dialogue and understanding between defense establishments. The interactions at this exhibition can influence future defense procurements, technological exchanges, and strategic partnerships, impacting global security dynamics for years to come.

How to prepare

Delegates preparing for DefenPol China should undertake a comprehensive analysis of the geopolitical context, particularly focusing on CHN's defense industrial base and its strategic partnerships. Understanding the nuances of CHN's defense policy and its implications for international security is paramount. A thorough review of the 'Dynamic Analysis' lesson can provide valuable frameworks for assessing the evolving defense landscape.

Engaging with the 'Hidden Stakeholders' and 'What Is Stakeholder Mapping?' lessons will be crucial for identifying key players and their interests within the exhibition's ecosystem. This includes not only direct participants but also indirect influencers who may shape outcomes. Developing robust 'Engagement Strategies' will ensure productive interactions, allowing delegates to effectively navigate complex discussions and achieve their objectives. Given the international nature of the event, an awareness of 'Gender Dynamics Across Cultures' can also enhance diplomatic effectiveness, fostering more inclusive and productive dialogues.

Country perspectives

Where the most-relevant 4 countries stand on the core issues in play. Click through for the full country profile.

China

Host and major exhibitor, showcasing domestic defense advancements and seeking international partnerships.

Role in topic

As the host nation, CHN uses this exhibition to project its defense capabilities, attract foreign investment in its defense sector, and solidify its position as a key player in the global arms market. It also serves as a platform for CHN to engage in defense diplomacy and technology exchange.

United States

Observing CHN's defense advancements and market strategies, while navigating complex bilateral relations.

Role in topic

The USA, a major global defense power, will likely monitor the exhibition closely to assess CHN's technological progress and its impact on regional and global security. Its participation, if any, would be carefully calibrated given the existing geopolitical tensions and trade dynamics.

Russia

Potential partner and competitor, exploring avenues for defense cooperation and market expansion.

Role in topic

RUS has historically been a significant defense partner for CHN. The exhibition offers an opportunity for RUS to strengthen existing ties, explore new areas of collaboration in defense technology, and potentially showcase its own defense products to a broader Asian market.

India

Assessing regional defense trends and potential implications for its own security posture.

Role in topic

IND, a significant regional power, would be interested in understanding the defense capabilities showcased, particularly those relevant to its strategic environment. The exhibition provides insights into the technological advancements and strategic directions of other major players in Asia.

Topics & background

The background behind each topic and the actors that shape it.

Global Security and Defense Cooperation

The contemporary security and defense landscape has been reshaped by the return of great-power competition, the war in Ukraine, escalating tensions in the Indo-Pacific, and the proliferation of asymmetric threats from non-state actors. Defense spending has reached record highs globally, with SIPRI reporting consecutive years of growth driven by NATO members, China's continued military modernization, and Middle Eastern and East Asian arms imports. Defense trade exhibitions such as those hosted in Guangzhou reflect China's growing role as both a major arms exporter and a hub for industry-to-industry security dialogues outside Western-led venues. The core dispute centers on how states should balance national defense industrial autonomy with international arms control regimes, export controls, and emerging norms on dual-use technology. The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), the Wassenaar Arrangement, and UN Register of Conventional Arms provide partial transparency, but major suppliers diverge sharply on end-use monitoring and human rights conditionality. Today the field is also being reshaped by AI integration, unmanned systems, and supply-chain fragility exposed during recent conflicts.

Key players

Air Power and the Future of Aerial Combat

Air power remains a decisive instrument of modern military strategy, but its character is changing rapidly. The wars in Ukraine and Nagorno-Karabakh demonstrated how relatively inexpensive drones, loitering munitions, and integrated air defenses can contest airspace once dominated by manned aircraft. Simultaneously, fifth-generation fighter programs (F-35, J-20, Su-57) and emerging sixth-generation initiatives such as GCAP (UK-Japan-Italy) and FCAS (France-Germany-Spain) are driving an expensive new round of capability competition. The central debate concerns how states should structure future air forces: balancing crewed platforms with autonomous wingmen, hardening against electronic warfare and hypersonic threats, and managing export controls on advanced avionics and stealth technology. China's rapid expansion of its indigenous combat aviation industry — including the J-20, J-35, and a growing UAV export portfolio — has positioned it as a direct competitor to Western primes in markets across Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Civil-military airspace integration, counter-UAS doctrine, and the militarization of near-space are also moving to the forefront.

Key players

Defense Policy, Doctrine, and Strategic Posture

National defense doctrines are undergoing their most significant revisions since the end of the Cold War. NATO's 2022 Strategic Concept reidentified Russia as the most significant direct threat and named China a systemic challenge; Japan's 2022 National Security Strategy abandoned decades of restraint by acquiring counterstrike capability; and China's 2019 defense white paper and subsequent statements emphasize 'intelligentized' warfare and Taiwan contingencies. Meanwhile, middle powers from India to Saudi Arabia are pursuing hedging strategies and indigenous defense industrial bases. The core disputes involve the credibility of extended deterrence, the role of nuclear weapons amid Russian threats and North Korean and Iranian programs, the legality and proportionality of preemptive doctrines, and how to integrate cyber, space, and cognitive domains into traditional defense planning. Defense reviews increasingly center on resilience, stockpile depth, and industrial mobilization — lessons drawn directly from the attrition dynamics of Ukraine.

Key players

Defense Manufacturing and Industrial Base Resilience

The war in Ukraine exposed the fragility of defense industrial bases across the Western world: artillery shell production, air defense interceptors, and long-lead components like solid rocket motors and semiconductors became chokepoints within months of high-intensity combat. In response, the United States invoked the Defense Production Act, the EU passed the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP) and the European Defence Industry Programme, and Japan and South Korea expanded export-oriented production. China, meanwhile, leverages a state-directed military-civil fusion strategy to scale dual-use manufacturing in shipbuilding, electronics, and rare-earth processing. The central issues are supply-chain security for critical inputs (semiconductors, rare earths, energetics), the role of small and mid-sized suppliers, technology transfer rules in co-production agreements, and tensions between export controls and allied interoperability. Emerging manufacturing techniques — additive manufacturing, autonomous factories, and digital twins — are also reshaping what kinds of states can credibly produce advanced weapons, lowering barriers for middle powers while intensifying competition among traditional primes.

Key players

Command, Control, Communications, and Battlefield Networks (C4ISR)

Command and control has emerged as a decisive arena of modern military competition. The U.S. concept of Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control (CJADC2), China's 'Multi-Domain Precision Warfare,' and Russia's troubled Reconnaissance-Strike Complex all aim to compress the kill chain by fusing sensors, AI-enabled decision aids, and dispersed shooters across land, sea, air, space, and cyber. Ukraine's battlefield use of commercial satellite imagery, Starlink connectivity, and software-defined targeting tools (such as Delta and GIS Arta) has demonstrated both the power and the vulnerability of networked warfare. The core disputes concern interoperability among allies with incompatible legacy systems, the resilience of communications under electronic warfare and anti-satellite threats, the ethical and legal limits of AI-assisted targeting, and the governance of dual-use commercial providers that now sit in the kill chain. Export controls on advanced chips, encryption, and satellite services have become front-line instruments of strategic competition, while states from the Gulf to Southeast Asia seek sovereign C4ISR capabilities to avoid dependency on any single bloc.

Key players