A display of Beijing Review magazines at China International Publishing Group's exhibition booth attracted a visitor at BookExpo America 2015 at the Javits Center in New York City, May 27, 2015.[Photo: Yan Pei / China.org.cn]

The just concluded BookExpo America (BEA) 2015, the largest annual book trade fair in the United States, not only strengthened China-U.S. cultural exchanges, but also showcased the achievements of China's publishing industry.

China, invited for the first time as the guest of honor for BEA 2015's Global Market Forum (GMF) program, sent some 500 professionals from about 150 publishing companies and groups to the expo.

Official data showed Chinese publishers have inked a record high of 1,328 copyright deals with international counterparts in this year's BEA, a convincing proof that the country's publishing industry, as well as books from China and about China, has attracted increasing attention across the world.

It's agreed among publishers attending the expo that with the impressive economic and social development in the past decades, China has emerged as a great power globally, about whom Western readers are more eager to learn than ever before.

This growing fever of "reading" China offers tremendous opportunities for the country's publishing industry.

Thousands of titles have been exported to the rest of the world by China's publishing companies through book expos every year. Topics of books have gone beyond traditional Chinese medicine and Shaolin martial arts to children's books, science fiction, and stories of successful Chinese entrepreneurs.

Digital publishing was another hotly discussed topic during BEA 2015 about China's publishing industry. Publishers from China brought their latest achievements in digital age, including e-books, online learning platforms and new distribution models with the use of databases.