BEIJING - China's trade surplus is resulted from globalization and the international division of labor, as the country has advantages in processing and assembling industries, according to a white paper released by the Information Office of the State Council on Wednesday.

"With the transfer of large numbers of labor-intensive processing and assembling sectors to China from Japan, Singapore and other nations and regions, their surpluses with the United States and Europe were also transferred to China," the white paper, entitled "China's Foreign Trade", said.

This explains why China runs trade surpluses with the US and Europe, but has long-term deficits with Japan, the Republic of Korea, ASEAN and other major intermediate producers.

The white paper noted that China's surplus in trade in goods mainly comes from foreign-invested enterprises and processing trade.

Last year, the surplus created by foreign-invested enterprises reached $124.3 billion, accounting for 68.4 percent of the total surplus of China's trade in goods.

Meanwhile, some developed countries still impose restrictions on high-tech exports to China, which also contributes to the country's large trade surplus, the paper said.

Due to the nation's efforts to promote balanced foreign trade, China's surplus in trade in goods has been on a steady decline since 2009, and the proportion of surplus in the total import and export trade volume and the GDP has also dropped since 2008, according to the white paper.