Overall Performance: Scale Reaches New Heights, Growth Momentum Steady   

       According to the latest data from the General Administration of Customs, the total value of China's foreign trade in goods exceeded 45 trillion yuan for the first time in 2025, reaching 45.47 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%. This marks the ninth consecutive year of growth for China's foreign trade since 2017, fully demonstrating its strong resilience and vitality.

       Entering 2026, China's foreign trade has continued its sound growth momentum. Data released by the General Administration of Customs on March 10 shows that in the first two months of 2026, China's foreign trade in goods achieved double-digit growth. Driven by a combination of policy factors, economic factors, and base effects, a remarkable "good start" was achieved.

   Significant Results Achieved in Market Diversification Strategy   

       Facing a complex international trade environment, China has actively promoted a market diversification strategy for foreign trade, achieving notable results:

• Deepening Regional Cooperation
  Third Anniversary of RCEP Implementation: As the world's most populous free trade agreement with the largest economic and trade scale and greatest development potential, RCEP has effectively stimulated regional cooperation vitality and injected new momentum into Asia-Pacific regional economic integration.
  Steady Progress in "Belt and Road" Economic and Trade Cooperation: In 2025, the total import and export volume between China and countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" continued to grow, becoming an important pillar supporting China's foreign trade.

• Optimized Layout of Major Trading Partners
  ASEAN maintains its position as China's largest trading partner, with deepening bilateral trade cooperation.
  The EU, as an important trading partner of China, maintains stable economic and trade exchanges.
  China has become a major trading partner for over 160 countries and regions worldwide, an increase of more than 20 compared to 2020, with its foreign trade "circle of friends" continuously expanding.
  Data from the first two months of 2026 shows significant results in diversification布局 (layout), with China's trade with ASEAN, the EU, and "Belt and Road" countries achieving rapid growth, effectively hedging risks brought by fluctuations in any single market.

   Booming Development of New Business Formats and Models   

New foreign trade formats such as digital trade and cross-border e-commerce have become new engines driving foreign trade growth:

• Explosive Growth in Cross-border E-commerce
  In 2025, China's cross-border e-commerce import and export volume reached 2.75 trillion yuan, a 69.7% increase compared to 2020.
  From 2020 to 2024, cross-border e-commerce import and export volume grew from approximately 0.9 trillion yuan to 2.63 trillion yuan, nearly a tenfold increase in five years.
  The proportion of cross-border e-commerce in total goods trade has risen to 6%, becoming an important component of foreign trade.

• Continuously Increasing Policy Support
  Effective March 1, 2026, the newly revised Foreign Trade Law of the People's Republic of China officially came into effect, incorporating new business formats such as digital trade and cross-border e-commerce into the legal framework for the first time.
  The 2026 Government Work Report explicitly proposes promoting the expansion, upgrading, and standardized and orderly development of the "cross-border e-commerce + overseas warehouse" model.
  The Ministry of Commerce emphasizes that in 2026, efforts should be accelerated to build a "three-in-one" foreign trade system encompassing goods trade, services trade, and digital trade.

• Digital Technology Empowers Traditional Trade
  Digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing are profoundly changing the operational models of traditional foreign trade industrial and supply chains.
  Digital transformation helps foreign trade enterprises improve operational efficiency, reduce transaction costs, and enhance international competitiveness.

   Continued Release of Policy Dividends   

The 2026 Government Work Report has established the basic tone of "stabilizing scale and optimizing structure" for foreign trade work, with "stability, progress, vitality, and resilience" becoming key words for foreign trade development:

• Precise Financial Support
  Policies particularly emphasize financial support for micro, small, and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises.
  New special credit lines have benefited over 50,000 export-oriented enterprises, effectively alleviating financing difficulties for foreign trade companies.

• Steady Progress in Institutional Opening Up
  The Ministry of Commerce and relevant departments continue to promote trade facilitation reforms, simplify customs clearance procedures, and reduce institutional transaction costs.
  Policy documents such as the Catalogue of Encouraged Imports of Services have been revised and improved, providing institutional guarantees for the development of services trade.

• Positive Interaction Between Industrial Upgrading and Foreign Trade Development
  Foreign trade development forces industrial transformation and upgrading, promoting export products towards higher added value and higher technological content.
  Industrial upgrading in turn provides a solid foundation for high-quality development of foreign trade.

   Major Challenges Faced   

Although China's foreign trade demonstrates strong resilience, it still faces a series of severe challenges:

• Complex and Severe External Environment
  Unilateral trade protectionist measures such as additional tariffs imposed by the U.S. on China continue to exert pressure.
  Global trade growth is slowing down, and geopolitical uncertainties are intensifying.
  The rise of unilateralism and protectionism poses significant challenges to the world economic and trade order.

• Increase in Tariff Barriers and Trade Frictions
  Trade protection measures such as "reciprocal tariffs" violate the WTO's most-favored-nation principle and undermine international trade rules.
  The global economic and trade friction index remains at a high level, increasing risks and uncertainties faced by enterprises.

• Pressure from Industrial and Supply Chain Restructuring
  A few countries are promoting strategies of "decoupling and severing supply chains," "small yard, high fence," and "de-risking," attempting to advance the "reshoring, nearshoring, and friend-shoring" triple supply chain布局 (layout).
  The trend of global economic fragmentation poses challenges to stable and sustainable global trade growth.

   Coping Strategies and Development Outlook   

Facing the complex and changing external environment, Chinese foreign trade enterprises are actively adopting coping measures, and the Ministry of Commerce and relevant departments have also proposed a series of policy recommendations:

• Adhere to High-Level Opening Up
  Respond to trade protectionism with high-level opening up, enhancing resilience and vitality through openness.
  Actively participate in WTO reform, safeguard the multilateral trading system, and promote the building of an open world economy.

• Accelerate Digital Transformation
  Deepen and expand the "AI Plus" initiative, cultivate new forms of the intelligent economy.
  Promote the digital transformation and upgrading of traditional foreign trade enterprises to enhance international competitiveness.

• Deepen Regional Economic and Trade Cooperation
  Fully leverage the role of regional cooperation mechanisms such as RCEP and the "Belt and Road."
  Promote the construction of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0, expanding new spaces for cooperation.

• Enhance Industrial Chain Resilience
  Proactively "go global," optimizing global supply chain布局 (layout).
  Strengthen efforts in core technology breakthroughs, enhancing the independent and controllable capabilities of industrial and supply chains.

• Innovate Development Models
  Vigorously develop new business formats and models such as cross-border e-commerce, market procurement trade, and overseas warehouses.
  Promote the development of comprehensive foreign trade service enterprises, providing one-stop services for small and medium-sized enterprises.

   Industry Voices   

       Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao stated in an interview: "The characteristics of China's foreign trade in 2025 can be summarized as 'stability, progress, vitality, and resilience.' In 2026, on the basis of stabilizing scale, we must pay more attention to optimizing structure, promoting the coordinated development of goods trade, services trade, and digital trade, cultivating new drivers of foreign trade, and developing new quality productive forces."

       Cindy Tai, Vice President of Amazon Global, believes: "Cross-border e-commerce is leading foreign trade towards new and high-quality development. Its three major advantages include: first, breaking geographical barriers to directly reach global consumers; second, improving trade efficiency and reducing transaction costs; third, promoting industrial upgrading and driving the transformation from 'Made in China' to 'Brands from China'."

   Conclusion   

       Looking ahead, although China's foreign trade will continue to face numerous challenges,By virtue of (relying on) its complete industrial chain advantages, continuously upgraded technological level, constantly improving policy environment, and increasingly diversified market layout (layout), China's foreign trade is expected to maintain a steady development trend, demonstrating stronger resilience and vitality in the complex and changing international environment.

With the deepening of regional cooperation mechanisms such as RCEP and the "Belt and Road," the vigorous development of new business formats like cross-border e-commerce, and the acceleration of digital transformation, China's foreign trade is moving towards a new stage of high-quality development, providing strong support for building a new development paradigm.