From June 12 to 14, the 3rd Changchun International Optoelectronic Expo (CCIOE) was held in Changchun. The event brought together 890 exhibitors, including 42 foreign-funded and joint-venture companies, and more than 2,000 experts and scholars. Seven themed exhibition zones made their debut, setting new records in scale and profile. Yet this expo is far more than a showcase of technologies; it sends deeper signals about Changchun’s reshaping of industrial confidence, the transformation of this old industrial base into a fast follower, and the changing landscape of China’s optoelectronics industry. Looking closely at this CCIOE, we can interpret the evolutionary logic of the “city chasing light” from at least five dimensions.
At the 3rd Changchun International Optoelectronic Expo, exhibitors displayed their equipment.
Dimension One: From the “Cradle of Optics” to a Hundred-Billion-Yuan Track
As China’s first optical research institution, the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics (CIOMP), Chinese Academy of Sciences established the city’s status as the “cradle of optics.” In 2024, Changchun built an industrial system of “3 transformations, 4 strengths, and 7 emerging sectors,” and the CCIOE emerged accordingly. In 2025, the city’s optoelectronics industry scale reached 90.63 billion yuan, with nearly 400 enterprises. Jilin Province has designated it as the “No.1 Project.” The CCIOE serves not only as a window to revisit the pioneering work of Wang Daheng and other forebears but also as a platform where Changchun stands shoulder to shoulder with international giants such as ZEISS and Hexagon, demonstrating its ambition to go global.
Dimension Two: A Strategic Breakthrough for the City – Building China’s Optoelectronics City
In the face of intense competition from cities like Wuhan and Shenzhen, Changchun has steered clear of the cutthroat rivalry in midstream manufacturing and instead maintained a firm grip on original innovation at its source.
On June 8, Changchun clearly defined its focus on six major optoelectronics industry clusters, highlighting its advantage in integrating technological innovation, and serving the national effort to break through “bottleneck” technologies. By the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the city aims for the industry scale to exceed 160 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of no less than 10%, and to add 500 new market entities. The bottleneck areas such as lithography machines and LiDAR are precisely where CIOMP and the “Changchun Optics System” enterprises have deep expertise. The CCIOE showcased a complete path from source innovation to solving urgent national needs.
Dimension Three: Innovation Ecosystem – Coexistence of the “National Team” and “Hidden Champions”
Relying on the organized technology transfer of the “one institute, two universities” – CIOMP, Jilin University, and Changchun University of Science and Technology – Changchun has formed a model that is difficult to replicate. The “Changchun Optics System” enterprises cover the entire chain from chip design and wafer manufacturing to satellite networking, encompassing 52 entities. Gpixel Changchun Microelectronics Inc. (Gpixel) saw its market value exceed 40 billion Hong Kong dollars after listing. Cedar Electronics holds the world’s largest market share in COB small-pitch LEDs. Jilin OLED Material Tech has broken OLED material monopolies. An ecosystem of “leading enterprises + specialized and sophisticated SMEs” is taking shape. In its first year of operation, the “HOPE” model of Jiguang Laboratory added 300 million yuan in capital to Changchun Changguang Zhengyuan through its front-illuminated CMOS technology, providing a replicable example of technology transfer.
At the 3rd Changchun International Optoelectronic Expo, visitors interacted with cultural tourism robots.
Dimension Four: Industry-City Integration Reshaping the Industrial DNA
Designating optoelectronics as its “No.1 Project,” the Changchun Economic and Technological Development Zone is taking the lead in building China’s Optoelectronics City, with coordinated development among Changchun New Area, Jingyue District, Changchun Automobile Economic and Technological Zone, and the China-ROK (Changchun) International Cooperation Demonstration Zone. The project signings at this CCIOE showed improved quality, with investment attraction shifting from quantity to quality. The Changchun Automobile Economic and Technological Zone exhibited Hongqi’s “Tiannian No.1” flying car and smart cockpit, accelerating the integration of “optoelectronics + automobiles.” The transformation from an “automobile city” to an “optoelectronics city” is not about eliminating old industries but about empowering them with new technologies, reflecting a new logic for Northeast China’s revitalization.
Dimension Five: Future Pathways – Atomic-level Manufacturing and “Optics +” Crossovers
This year’s expo hosted the first 2026 Atomic-level Manufacturing Innovation and Development Conference, focusing on frontier areas including atomic processing technologies, equipment, and metrology, it is making forward-looking moves to gain a say in the industries of the future. Meanwhile, the seven themed exhibition zones covered atomic-level manufacturing, commercial aerospace, automotive electronics, low-altitude economy, embodied intelligence, optics + smart agriculture, and more, outlining the diversified enabling pathways of optoelectronics as the “foundation” of a new generation of industries, systematically laying out layouts for automotive transformation, smart agriculture, and the low-altitude economy.
Three consecutive editions of the CCIOE represent Changchun’s sustained effort to break free from path dependence and find new growth drivers. From “Changchun Optics Valley” to “China’s Optoelectronics City,” from the “double thousand” goals to the 160-billion-yuan blueprint, the CCIOE reflects both historical glory and present ambition. Whether the long-tail effect of the expo can be transformed into lasting industrial competitiveness will determine whether the “chase for light” can truly become reality. Changchun’s story continues.
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