As national reading becomes a state strategy, CIBTC, China’s oldest book trader, builds digital bridges that help the world discover a true, multi-dimensional China.
On April 17, 2026, China International Communications Group (CICG) launches the C-Park National Reading Season at the Sci-tech Cultural Park for Global Communication in Beijing. The event is organized by China International Book Trading Corporation, which is affiliated with CICG.
Today, as artificial intelligence sweeps the globe, the very notion of “reading” is being redefined. When algorithms can instantly generate a plethora of information and fragmented content permeates daily life, where does that leave deep, systematic reading? As China’s Regulations on National Reading Promotion took effect on February 1, the country institutionalized National Reading Week (the fourth week of April) – a move that carries particular significance in the age of AI.
“The rapid development of AI has streamlined the accessing of information, but has also led to ‘information cocoons’ as well as fragmented, superficial reading,” said Wang Tong, vice president of China International Book Trading Corporation (CIBTC), in an exclusive interview with China Today. “The contemporary value of establishing the National Reading Week lies in using institutional power to safeguard people’s capacity for deep reading and systematic thinking.”
As New China’s first import and export agency for books and periodicals, CIBTC traces its origins to the founding of the Guoji Shudian (International Bookstore) on December 1, 1949. Over the past seven or more decades, the company has evolved from a book carrier into a multinational cultural industry group whose operations span cultural trade, international exhibitions, copyright trading, international publishing, and digital distribution. With online and offline distribution channels covering over 180 countries and regions, it maintains close partnerships with more than 3,000 overseas distributors, platforms, bookstores, and publishers, as well as over 5,000 libraries, think tanks, and universities worldwide. Today, amid the profound transformations AI brings to publishing, CIBTC is transitioning from the actual moving of books to intelligent cultural dissemination, so becoming an important cultural ferry for Chinese books and cultural products going global.
Reading in the Age of AI
“National Reading Week does not just mean a series of reading-associated events – it’s a signal,” Wang said. “It conveys to society that in an era of algorithm-driven recommendations and short videos, the ability to engage in active, deep, and systematic reading remains the cornerstone of personal growth and social progress.”
For CIBTC, the reading week’s institutionalization comes at an opportune time. The inauguration of National Reading Week has seen the group’s launch of the themed “Spring Reading, Embracing the World” series, comprising the weekly organization in April 2026 of 15 or more diverse reading and cultural events, each with distinctive highlights, which form a matrix of five themed series.
For the “Reading the Classics” segment, CIBTC hosts, in collaboration with renowned overseas publishers, exhibitions of imported foreign-language books in university libraries, featuring classic works and the latest global publications on technology trends. The International Bookstore in Beijing will host the Chinese launch, along with a shared reading event, of the 80th-anniversary interactive illustrated edition of the French version of The Little Prince. The “Reading Life” segment combines book culture with displays of intangible cultural heritage and cultural creative products, so making reading an immersive cultural activity. The “Crossing Mountains and Seas” segment leverages the group’s core strengths as a book import and export enterprise. Through the Overseas Chinese Bookstores Consortium, CIBTC thus promotes the global reach of Chinese literature.
The group’s Sci-tech Cultural Park for Global Communication, in addition, hosts the “C-Park National Reading Season” under the theme “Soul Goods.” In partnership with over 100 publishing brands, bookstores, and libraries nationwide, the event features themed booklists, pop-up exhibitions, offline markets, and reading activities – in effect a carnival of reading for all.
“We hope through these events to create a vibrant, rich, and influential window to showcase Chinese and international reading culture,” Wang said.
China International Book Trading Corporation organizes the 2025 New Zealand Chinese Theme Book Fair – the China-New Zealand Youth Cultural Heritage and Educational Development Art Exhibition in August 2025.
Boundless Reading: A Two-Way Shift in Publishing
Business data from CIBTC clearly reflects the pulse of the global reading market. “In recent years, two notable shifts in readers’ interests have emerged,” Wang said. “First, that of ‘borderlessness’ – reflected in domestic readers’ growing demand for international cutting-edge technology, classics, and foreign bestsellers – which parallels overseas readers’ rising interest in contemporary China and Chinese science fiction. Second is ‘scenario diversification’ – whereby reading-related business operations are expanding from solely print books to audiovisual content and knowledge services.”
The rise of AI, digital publishing, and knowledge platforms is reshaping traditional publishing models and hence public reading habits. In response, CIBTC has adjusted its business across multiple dimensions.
“We are no longer merely importers and exporters of books – we are builders of a reading ecosystem,” Wang told China Today. CIBTC has proactively expanded into digital publishing by establishing in-depth cooperation with major global digital platforms. Currently, its e-books and multilingual periodicals are distributed in over 100 countries and regions through key international platforms, such as Rakuten Kobo and PressReader in Canada, Media Carrier in Germany, OverDrive, Magzter, and Amazon KEP in the United States, BorrowBox in Australia, and Ink it in Mexico.
Among these, PressReader – the world’s largest integrated platform for newspapers and magazines – serves 200 million readers, and OverDrive works with more than 91,000 libraries and schools across over 110 countries and regions. Through these channels, Chinese content is reaching a global audience around the clock.
“Technology enables us to understand more precisely the preferences of overseas readers,” Wang said. By analyzing overseas reading behavior through big data, CIBTC can refine offline book selections and event planning to enhance the relevance and impact of cultural dissemination.
The Global Appeal of Chinese Themes
Overseas Chinese bookstores are physical bookstores registered and operating abroad which primarily sell Chinese publications. Mostly established by patriotic overseas Chinese or foreign friends of China, they are scattered worldwide – around 100 remain today. They serve as important windows for other nationalities to gain insight into Chinese culture. In November 2024, during the Huangshan Book Fair, CIBTC jointly organized the Convention on the Future of Overseas Bookstores: Innovation and Inspiration with Anhui Xinhua Distribution Group. Its focus was on global promotion of Chinese publications and the establishment of the Overseas Chinese Bookstores Consortium spanning six continents. During the National Reading Week, the consortium’s strengths are being fully leveraged by staging such events as the “Chinese Writers’ Overseas Study” series, geared to promoting Chinese literature globally. They enable contemporary Chinese writers to engage in cultural exchanges at member stores through online or offline lectures, book signings, and dialogues with readers.
The “Chinese Writers’ Overseas Study” series helps to integrate Chinese authors’ works more deeply into mainstream overseas reading markets. Using literature as a bridge, it conveys the essence of the Chinese spirit, values, and philosophy on life, so fostering cross-cultural dialogue, mutual understanding, and exchanges among civilizations.
Events have included a meet-and-greet tour for post-1990s writer Li Mengji at the Isolated Island Post Office Bookstore in Barcelona, Spain, a works-sharing session for Chinese-American writer Zhang Zongzi at the Eglance Bookstore in the United States, and a reader meet-up for young writer Lu Sihao at the Popular Bookstore in Malaysia. To date, the project has invited six writers and held nine cultural activities across multiple countries and regions.
“These events are not just simple book signings – they are in-depth cultural exchanges,” Wang stated. In Spain, for example, all readers remained fully engaged throughout, attentively listening and actively participating, demonstrating their appreciation and respect for Chinese literature and writers.
Beyond expanding offline channels, CIBTC has also made breakthroughs in online platform development. In October 2023, at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany, CIBTC launched its self-developed copyright trading platform, “Online Service for International Copyright” (OSIC). Leveraging AI and big data technologies, OSIC provides a fully digitalized service system that covers the entire process of service, trading, and display.
“Over the past two years, the platform has been a feature of major international book fairs, facilitating 31 copyright export intentions and outcomes,” Wang said. Currently, it hosts over 50 domestic and international publishers, presents 1,000 or more titles for copyright trading, and has recorded over 40,000 page views. The platform has been instrumental in the exportation and local publication of works such as the Italian edition of The Story of Taotie and Shennong Tasting Hundreds of Herbs from Hebei Children’s Publishing House, and the Italian edition of Fish Lifting the Beam and Earth Piling Pavilion from Hebei Education Publishing House.
Chinese-language textbooks remain the best-selling category of Chinese-themed books in international markets, according to Wang. Today, overseas readers’ interest in Chinese-themed books is shifting from historical traditions to contemporary life.
“Beyond traditional Chinese literature and history, today’s hottest topics are those of contemporary China, Chinese sci-fi, and Chinese technology,” Wang said. “This denotes the eagerness of overseas readers to understand a developing, tangible, and tech-savvy China.”
Specifically, the dominant focuses of overseas readers in Chinese-themed books are in four areas. The first is literature, where works by such renowned authors as Liu Zhenyun and Mo Yan, and sci-fi by Liu Cixin gain wide acclaim in Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States. Second is children’s literature by Cao Wenxuan, and children’s books generally, particularly in Southeast Asian countries, where they constitute the largest single category of CIBTC’s overseas sales. The third is academic works, which command wide demand at university libraries across Europe and the United States. Fourth, and finally, is traditional Chinese culture and social sciences, the passion for traditional Chinese medicine culture having spread throughout Europe, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
“As the international influence of Chinese culture grows, global attention to Chinese-themed publications exponentially increases,” Wang said.
The Beijing visit of publishers and distributors from countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative in November 2025.
Navigating Knowledge in the AI Era
Looking ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), CIBTC’s strategy can be summarized as “twin-driven,” according to Wang.
The first driver is that of the “Digital Going Global Project.” The corporation has plans for the deep integration of China International Communications Group’s multilingual periodical and book database resources. It will systematically process, standardize, and structure data from the tens of thousands of Chinese-themed books, multilingual academic journals, and professional documents aggregated on its platform, so building a multilingual, multi-field AI training corpus for Chinese culture and academic knowledge.
“The aim is to make Chinese books and periodicals become authoritative knowledge sources for global large models in the AI era, so upgrading the export of Chinese content from ‘digital going global’ to ‘knowledge source going global,’ and providing authentic, comprehensive, and across-the-board knowledge services in regard to China to global users,” Wang explained.
The second driver is the “Global Channel Deep Cultivation Plan.” The corporation intends to upgrade and transform comprehensively its multilingual periodical database for China, deeply integrating AI technologies to build a more intelligent, efficient, and secure international digital service system. The platform will utilize natural language processing and machine learning technologies to achieve cross-lingual intelligent retrieval, automatic generation of multilingual summaries, and precise content recommendations based on AI-driven user behavior analysis.
Since its founding in 1949, from initially transporting books overseas via ocean liners to today’s instant global transmission of Chinese culture through digital platforms, CIBTC has consistently played the role of a cultural ferry in cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world.
At a time when national reading has become a national strategy, while AI technology reshapes knowledge dissemination, CIBTC’s explorations carry dual significance. Domestically, it serves as a guardian of deep reading, enriching people’s spiritual lives through diverse reading activities and the introduction of outstanding foreign publications. Internationally, it acts as a disseminator of Chinese wisdom and culture, using intelligent digital platforms to present a real, comprehensive, and multi-dimensional China to the world.
“The future of cultural exports is not just about selling books – it’s about offering ‘reading services’ and ‘knowledge solutions,’” Wang remarked, possibly pointing the way to the publishing industry’s transformation in the AI era. As reading transcends paper, dissemination crosses borders, and knowledge flows through algorithms, the channels for Chinese culture’s global reach are being redefined.
Between algorithms and humanity, between tradition and the future, and between China and the world, new channels are being paved. The institutional guarantee of national reading provides the ballast, AI technology offers a new engine, and cultural “navigators” like CIBTC are conveying the essence of Chinese civilization, promoting global cultural exchange and mutual learning.
