Poster: China's foreign trade hits new high, up 3.8% in 2025

China's foreign trade expanded 3.8% year on year in yuan terms in 2025, official data showed on Jan. 14, 2026.

Last year, the country's foreign trade value hit 45.47 trillion yuan (about 6.48 trillion U.S. dollars), according to data released by the General Administration of Customs. This marks the ninth consecutive year of growth for China's foreign trade since 2017.

Exports grew 6.1% year on year to 26.99 trillion yuan in 2025. Imports reached a record 18.48 trillion yuan, with year-on-year growth of 0.5 percent, cementing China's status as the world's second-largest import market for 17 years in succession.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), China's cumulative import and export value had exceeded 200 trillion yuan, representing a 40-percent surge from the 13th Five-Year Plan period and an average annual growth rate of 7.1 percent.