Digital trade represents the most dynamic breakthrough for China in deepening the openness of its service sector. Kou Gang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Dean of the Big Data Research Institute at Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, made this statement on March 10 while attending the Two Sessions in Beijing.
Digital trade is a new form of international commerce driven by digital technology and powered by data as a key element. The latest statistics from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange show that China's digital service trade surplus reached approximately $33 billion in 2025, doubling from the previous year. After excluding traditional service trade and focusing on segments covering telecommunications operations, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence-related services, the surplus in telecommunications, computer, and information services reached about $31.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of nearly 30%.
"Emerging service exports represented by cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms are becoming the core driving force improving the structure of service trade. This is no longer just a transfer of 'marginal capacity' but represents the global export of new quality productive forces," Kou Gang expressed with excitement. "My research shows that Chinese companies going global are undergoing profound structural changes, from AI models like DeepSeek gaining global attention to domestic games and short online dramas continuing to expand overseas. This shift represents an upgrade from product exports to brand and technology exports, from targeting developed markets to deepening presence in developing markets across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, with the main participants expanding from industry leaders to numerous small and medium-sized enterprises."
However, Kou Gang believes that transforming digital trade into a new engine for high-quality development still faces several unavoidable challenges: practical needs of companies going global encounter data localization barriers; significant differences in data regulations across countries keep compliance costs high; content exports face dual challenges of cultural discounts and insufficient localization capabilities; global rules in digital trade remain underdeveloped, with China's participation and voice needing enhancement.
"The 2026 Government Work Report explicitly calls for 'steadily expanding institutional openness,' which points the way forward," Kou Gang stated. He believes that competition in digital trade is essentially competition over rules and institutions. China must shift from passive adaptation to active shaping, with "institutional openness" at the core, to build a rule system adapted to the digital era.
Kou Gang recommends improving competition rules for digital trade by adding detailed provisions addressing algorithmic discrimination and data monopoly in the revision of the Anti-Monopoly Law, creating a fair environment for all market participants; optimizing cross-border digital intellectual property rules and establishing a sound data property certification mechanism; exploring convenient and efficient cross-border data flow mechanisms while ensuring security, achieving a dynamic balance between "effective regulation" and "smooth flow."
Kou Gang further proposed that China's advantages in developing digital trade lie in its rich application scenarios and rapidly evolving business models. He emphasized the need to strengthen the cultivation of new business formats such as digital finance, online education, and telemedicine, build core competitiveness in digital service exports, focus on supporting knowledge-intensive service exports, support innovation in cultural content industry exports, and transform advantages into sustained export momentum.
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