( The Chinese version shall prevail. )

Review of China’s Foreign Trade in the First

Half of 2025

July 14, 2025

According to Customs statistics, China’s foreign trade in goods in the first half of 2025 reached RMB21.79 trillion, up by 2.9% year-on-year. Exports grew by 7.2% year-on-year to RMB13 trillion and imports decreased by 2.7% year-on-year to RMB8.79 trillion.

The details are as follows:

1. Foreign trade has maintained steady growth. In the first half of 2025, China’s foreign trade exceeded RMB20 trillion and reached a new record high compared with the same period in the history. Imports and exports in the second quarter expanded by 4.5% year-on-year, 3.2 percentage points higher than the first quarter, registering positive growth for seven consecutive quarters.

2. Trading partners became more diverse. In the first half of 2025, China’s trade with BRI partner countries totaled RMB11.29 trillion, up by 4.7% year-on-year, with its proportion in China’s total foreign trade increasing by 0.9 percentage points to 51.8%. China’s trade with ASEAN scored RMB3.67 trillion, up by 9.6% year-on-year. Over the same period, China’s trade with the EU, the ROK, and Japan witnessed positive growth respectively.

3. Export growth drivers upgraded and gained new momentum. In the first half of 2025, exports of electro-mechanical products increased by 9.5% to RMB7.8 trillion, taking up 60% of the total exports, up by 1.2 percentage points year-on-year. Exports of high-tech equipment, related closely with new quality productive forces, grew by over 20%. Exports of “the new three”, which signifies green and low-carbon development, rose by 12.7%.

4. Domestic demand expanded and stimulated  imports. As China took steps to implement major national strategies and enhance security capacity in key areas, and increased support for a new round of large-scale equipment upgrades and consumer goods trade-in programs, imports in the second quarter of this year resumed positive growth. In the first half of 2025, imports of mechanical equipment in the petrochemical and textile industry saw double-digit growth. Imports of electronic components and other key parts grew rapidly. Imports of crude oil and metalliferous ores, which are key raw materials, increased by weight.

5. Foreign trade entities have been further invigorated. In the first half of 2025, China has about 628,000 foreign trade enterprises with export and import records, surpassing 600,000 for the first time. The number went up by about 43,000 compared with the same period of last year. The total number of private enterprises stood at about 547,000 with their imports and exports increasing by 7.3%, accounting for approximately 60% of the country’s total.