Data show 'sky won't fall' for China's trade

In the first quarter of 2025, China's foreign trade showed steady performance, with the total goods trade volume increasing by 1.3 percent year-on-year to 10.3 trillion yuan ($1.41 trillion), according to the General Administration of Customs.

Exports rose 6.9 percent to 6.13 trillion yuan, while imports declined 6 percent to 4.17 trillion yuan year-on-year. Although imports fell in the first three months of this year, the growth rate of the overall import and export value has rebounded — it fell 2.2 percent in January, remained unchanged in February and grew by 6 percent in March.

The data indicate that the country has maintained its position as the world's second-largest importer for 16 consecutive years, with an average annual growth rate of 5.4 percent, and its share in global imports has also steadily increased from 7.9 percent to 10.5 percent.

The growth rate of China's trade with the countries and regions taking part in the construction of the Belt and Road was 2.2 percent in the first quarter year-on-year, 0.9 percentage points higher than the overall average. China's trade with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations hit 1.71 trillion yuan, an increase of 7.1 percent year-on-year.

In the first quarter, the imports and exports of mechanical and electrical products, particularly household appliances, laptops, electronic components as well as automatic data processing equipment parts, ships and marine engineering equipment, amounted to 5.29 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.7 percent, making them key drivers of the overall growth of the country's foreign trade.

It is worth noting that foreign-invested enterprises still play an important role in China's foreign trade. In the first quarter, the import and export value of foreign-invested enterprises in China was 2.99 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.4 percent year-on-year, accounting for 29 percent of the total and achieving growth for four consecutive quarters.

In the first quarter of this year, there were more than 67,000 foreign-invested enterprises involved in imports and exports, a record high in the same period over the past three years. They accounted for more than 40 percent of China's exports of high-tech products such as electronic information products, biomedicine and medical instruments.

As the restrictions on foreign investment access in China's manufacturing industry have been completely lifted, the green, digital and intelligent transformation of relevant industries, and the market-oriented, legal and international first-class business environment of China are both conducive to helping foreign-invested enterprises fully display their advantages in China and gain an advantage in global competition.

Private enterprises have always been the main force of China's foreign trade, and their import and export value in the first quarter was 5.85 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.8 percent year-on-year, accounting for 56.8 percent of China's foreign trade, an increase of 2.4 percentage points over the same period last year.

Private enterprises have become an important force fueling China's innovation-driven growth, promoting the high-end, intelligent and green transformation of the manufacturing sector. They are indispensable to China's new energy products continuing to play an important role in the global green transformation. In the first quarter, China's exports of wind turbines, lithium batteries, and electric vehicles increased by 43.2 percent, 18.8 percent and 8.2 percent year-on-year respectively.

Meanwhile, the majority of export companies have quickly responded to the diversified demands of the global market. Some traditional industries have launched customized products to adapt to the fast-changing market.

At present, China's exports are undoubtedly facing a complex and severe external situation, as the US administration's abuse of tariffs is inevitably having a negative impact on global trade, including that of China. But the country has resolutely implemented necessary countermeasures not only to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, but also to defend international trade rules and international fairness and justice.

China will unswervingly promote high-level opening-up to the outside world and carry out mutually beneficial and win-win economic and trade cooperation with all countries.

In the process, China will never stop building a diversified market and deepening cooperation with all parties in the industry and supply chains, which will not only facilitate the development of the other party, but also enhance the resilience of the Chinese economy. China's huge domestic market, complete industrial system, efficient policymaking and effective execution system will continuously serve as stabilizers of the situation, helping the country counter external changes and risks with domestic stability and certainty.