In China’s trade landscape, only one thing hasn’t changed over the past 10 years: China remains the largest trading country in the world. Everything else—who it trades with and what it trades—has experienced notable shifts.
Every month, China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) publishes detailed statistics, within which these changes are hidden. Digging through this data uncovers fascinating insights into China’s shifting strategic priorities and its evolving role in global supply chains between 2016 and today.
Shifts in Who China Trades With
Back in 2016, China’s trade was still heavily oriented toward the developed world. At the time, 67% of its exports were destined for advanced economies, while 62% of its imports originated there. The United States was by far China’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade standing at USD 519 billion. The EU—China’s second-largest partner—trailed behind at USD 472 billion in bilateral trade.
Today, this is no longer the case. China’s ambition to play a more prominent role in the Global South is explicitly underpinned by trade. By 2025, the share of developed economies in China’s exports and imports had declined to 53% and 50%, respectively, as ties with developing markets deepened. In 2019, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) surpassed both the United States and the EU to become China’s number one trading partner, and it has continued to cement this position. Last year, China-ASEAN trade surged to an unprecedented USD one trillion, almost double the level of trade with the United States.
This does not mean that China’s trade with developed countries is declining; rather, its growth has lagged behind that of its trade with developing economies. Over the past decade, China’s commerce with developed nations rose by 27%, compared with a striking 130% increase with developing countries. Among the latter, Vietnam, Russia and Brazil recorded the largest gains, with trade volumes tripling over this period. Exchanges with other partners across Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East expanded by around two and a half times on average.
Shifts in What China Trades
In 2016, China was largely an assembly hub for global consumer goods, especially low-tech electronics and their components. Of the top 10 export goods that year, eight fell into this category, including mobile phones, laptops and TVs. Over the past decade, China has continued to export these items, but their export growth in USD value has either flattened or increased only moderately.
Fast forward to 2025, China had shifted toward exporting higher-value, more capital-intensive technologies. Its export mix is now characterized not only by finished high-tech products but also by their key components, deepening its integration into global technology supply chains. Semiconductor exports stand out in particular, recording the fastest growth—rising by 231%, or USD 140 billion, over the past decade.
Among finished high-tech products, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles (EVs) have especially seen rapid expansion. Batteries, which ranked 31st among China’s exports in 2016, climbed to fourth place by 2025, with China now producing an impressive 80% of global supply. A similar shift is evident in EVs: absent as a standalone category in GACC data in 2016, they accounted for 2% of total exports by 2025, valued at USD 35 billion.
At the same time, import data shows that over the past 10 years China has become far more reliant on natural resources, particularly mineral fuels and metal ores. In 2016, these accounted for 17% of imports; by 2025, the figure had risen to 28%. China has also become more dependent on imports of tech components, once again signaling its deeper integration into global supply chains. Unsurprisingly, the category that saw the biggest drop in imports was foreign cars, as China emerged as a global automotive manufacturer during this period.
The Future of China’s Trade
The 15th Five-Year Plan (FYP) makes it clear that China will continue to position itself as a “strong trading nation.” Trade diversification, which gained momentum amid trade tensions with the United States last year, remains one of the priorities for the next five years, alongside increasing imports. The trend of trade growth with both developed and developing nations, albeit faster with the latter, is set to continue. For players in the shipping industry, or anyone looking to expand trade with China, this points to continued opportunity.
At the same time, China’s exports will become even more technologically sophisticated. As an example, in 2026 the GACC created a Harmonized System (HS) code for “intelligent bionic robots” (84798970) and began recording their exports. Between January and April 2026, total exports reached 6,350 units, and this is only the beginning. For multinational corporations (MNCs) in frontier sectors, this means that engaging with China’s innovation ecosystem is becoming essential to understand the capabilities Chinese firms will soon bring to markets worldwide.
Higher-tech exports will also continue to make China hungrier for resources, particularly metal ores. For foreign mining and commodities firms, this suggests sustained demand. For industrial and automotive MNCs, this means they must now contend with China not just domestically, but globally—for both consumers and resources.
