In the first eight months of this year, against the backdrop of slowing global economic growth and weakening external demand, China's foreign trade still maintained steady growth, demonstrating strong resilience and vitality. Recently, the General Administration of Customs released data showing that in the first eight months of this year, the total value of China's goods trade imports and exports reached 28.58 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6%. Among this, exports were 16.45 trillion yuan, up 6.9%; imports were 12.13 trillion yuan, up 4.7%; and the trade surplus was 4.32 trillion yuan, expanded by 13.6%.

The sustained growth in imports and exports in the first eight months was inseparable from the combined pull of domestic and international demand. A recent report released by the World Trade Organization noted that global goods trade maintained a recovery trend in the third quarter of 2024. Lyu Daliang, director of the Department of Statistical Analysis of the General Administration of Customs, said that since the beginning of this year, China's economy has continued to recover and improve. Judging from the latest data of various economies, China's global shares of exports and imports both rose steadily in the first half of the year.

Lyu Yue, professor at the National Academy of Opening-up of the University of International Business and Economics and executive dean of the Institute for Global Innovation and Governance, said that China's economy has continued its recovery and improvement trend, and consumer demand in the domestic market has continued to recover, providing a solid foundation for the good performance of goods trade imports and exports. In addition, as the dividends of foreign trade policies continue to be released, scientific and technological innovation drives industrial innovation, and the commodity structure continues to be optimized, all of which have contributed to the significant growth of the trade surplus.

From a regional perspective, emerging markets have become an important increment of China's external demand. In the first eight months of this year, ASEAN was China's largest trading partner, with the total trade value between China and ASEAN reaching 4.5 trillion yuan, up 10%, accounting for 15.7% of China's total foreign trade value. During the same period, China's total imports and exports with countries jointly building the Belt and Road amounted to 13.48 trillion yuan, up 7%.

Song Xuetao, chief macro analyst at Tianfeng Securities, said that China's export destinations are diversified, dependence on a single region has declined, and export resilience is higher. The relatively good export performance in August also benefited from demand pull from regions such as Africa and Latin America.

The stable growth of traditional export commodities, the significant export growth of high-tech and high-end equipment manufacturing, and the rapid development of new forms and models of foreign trade are prominent features of China's foreign trade. In the first eight months of this year, China's mechanical and electrical products accounted for nearly 60% of exports, among which exports of automatic data processing equipment and its components, integrated circuits, automobiles, and mobile phones maintained growth.

Song Xuetao said that China's share of global exports continues to recover. Benefiting from the continuous optimization of the domestic industrial structure, Chinese enterprises, represented by industries such as automobiles, have continued to improve their global competitiveness. In the future, the advantage of global share improvement brought by technological progress and the development of emerging markets may not yet be over, and the support of share for exports will continue.