At Qingdao Port in China’s Shandong Province, a massive vessel recently completed its berthing process by docking via an automated system. Beginning on the first day of 2026, the port officially put into operation the country’s first vacuum-based automatic mooring system. As a result, the mooring time for a single vessel has been reduced dramatically—from approximately 30 minutes to just 30 seconds.
Examples reflecting such new forms of advanced productive forces can be found across China. These developments also testify to the resilience and dynamism of China’s foreign trade. According to data released yesterday by the General Administration of Customs of China, the country’s total foreign trade in 2025 increased by 3.8 percent year on year, reaching 45.47 trillion yuan. During this period, exports rose by 6.1 percent to 26.99 trillion yuan, while imports increased by 0.5 percent to 18.48 trillion yuan. Consequently, China has continued to maintain its leading position in global merchandise trade.
Against the backdrop of slowing global economic growth and rising unilateralism and protectionism, this achievement in China’s foreign trade is neither ordinary nor easily attained. The data show that China’s imports and exports have recorded growth for nine consecutive years. This nine-year period represents the longest uninterrupted expansion in foreign trade since China’s accession to the World Trade Organization.
How, then, was this remarkable performance achieved? Sang Baichuan, Director of the Institute of International Economic Research at the University of International Business and Economics, attributed the growth of China’s foreign trade—despite the global economic slowdown—primarily to China’s robust policy framework aimed at stabilizing foreign trade, its ultra-large-scale domestic market, and the strong support provided by its complete industrial system. Sang noted that this valuable annual report on China’s foreign trade has laid a solid foundation for the newly launched 15th Five-Year Plan period, while also strengthening confidence in global trade and economic recovery.
A closer examination of China’s 2025 foreign trade “report card” reveals features characterized by greater scale, higher quality, and more pronounced mutual benefits.
In 2025, China maintained trade relations with more than 240 countries and regions, achieving growth in imports and exports with over 190 of them. The expansion of China’s trade has not only promoted development in countries around the world, but has also supported the shared expansion of the global economic “pie.”
This reasonable growth in volume has been driven by improvements in quality. In 2025, the annual growth rate of China’s imports and exports of high-tech products reached 11.4 percent, contributing nearly 60 percent to overall foreign trade growth. Exports of the so-called “new three products”—electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and solar panels—as well as green products such as wind turbines, increased by 27.1 percent and 48.7 percent, respectively. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies, imports of lidar rose by more than 20 percent, while imports of computer components also increased by 20 percent. Meanwhile, transportation and welding robots manufactured in China demonstrated their capabilities in major overseas construction projects. All of these developments indicate that China’s foreign trade structure is being continuously optimized, generating new momentum for both domestic development and global economic growth.
More importantly, the “win-win” nature of China’s foreign trade is becoming increasingly pronounced. In 2025, China’s top ten trading partners accounted for 47.7 percent of its total foreign trade value, a decline of two percentage points compared with 2024. This reflects a more balanced structure in China’s foreign trade.
From the export perspective, driven by market forces, China continues to provide the world with high-quality, affordable, stable, and reliable products. These products have not only improved living standards in various regions and helped ease inflationary pressures, but have also played a crucial role in maintaining the stability of global production and supply chains.
Achieving growth in imports during a period of declining international market prices is by no means easy. Through measures such as actively promoting “Export to China” initiatives and transforming platforms like the China International Import Expo into gateways for foreign capital entering the Chinese economy, China has maintained its position as the world’s second-largest import market for 17 consecutive years. According to the latest data, during the first three quarters of last year, China was the primary export destination for 79 countries and regions worldwide.
As the new year begins, many uncertainties persist. The World Trade Organization recently lowered its forecast for global merchandise trade growth in 2026 to as low as 0.5 percent. The greater the challenges, the stronger the resolve to move forward must be. Backed by solid economic fundamentals, China remains fully confident in advancing and innovating in the development of its foreign trade despite mounting pressures. In particular, important arrangements for trade development were made at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and at the Central Economic Work Conference. These meetings outlined measures such as optimizing merchandise trade, promoting balanced development between imports and exports, and signing more regional and bilateral trade and investment agreements. Together, these initiatives will provide stable expectations for the continued improvement of foreign trade, while also bringing greater predictability to global economic and trade development.