China's foreign trade data for the first four months of the year has been released, showing a 14.9% year-on-year growth in goods trade imports and exports. This continues the steady and positive development trend from the first quarter, with performance exceeding international market expectations. Through this foreign trade report card, the world has seen the deep confidence of China's economy in maintaining stability and making progress, and has gained a better understanding of China's development resilience.
Foreign trade is an important window for observing the vitality of China's economy and a vivid carrier of China empowering the world through its own development. In the face of headwinds and countercurrents in the external environment, China's foreign trade has delivered an excellent report card with considerable volume, optimized structure, and numerous highlights. In the first four months, the total value of China's goods trade imports and exports reached 16.23 trillion yuan, with single-month imports and exports in April reaching 4.38 trillion yuan, demonstrating strong growth momentum and solid development steps. During this period, the advantages of China's large-scale domestic market continued to be unleashed, driving imports to maintain double-digit growth. The accelerated pace of transformation and upgrading in the manufacturing sector has effectively supported the steady release of export momentum. The vitality of foreign trade entities has continued to burst forth, with private enterprises playing a stable pillar role in foreign trade and the willingness of foreign-invested enterprises to participate steadily recovering.
The continuous accumulation and growth of new momentum is accelerating China's foreign trade from "quantity increase" to "quality improvement." In the first four months, China's high-tech, high-value-added mechanical and electrical products accounted for 63.5% of total exports. Among them, exports of advantageous new momentum products such as electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and wind turbine units all increased by more than 40%, while exports of industrial robots grew by 30%. Chinese manufacturing is accelerating its transformation towards innovation, green development, and intelligence, continuously climbing up the value chain. At the same time, imports of China's mechanical and electrical products grew by 23.6%, with imports of automatic data processing equipment and its parts, and integrated circuits increasing by 55.9% and 43.5% respectively, indicating that global innovation factors are accelerating their aggregation in China. Relying on continuously improved market procurement trade pilots and cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones covering most of the country, new trade formats such as offshore trade and bonded maintenance are thriving and accumulating strength. New industries, technologies, and models are continuously reshaping China's foreign trade growth pattern and injecting strong momentum into the stability and upgrading of the global industrial and supply chains.
The more difficult the world economic recovery, the more important it is to adhere to the path of open cooperation and mutual benefit. China adheres to the implementation of a market diversification strategy, continuously deepens traditional markets, vigorously explores emerging markets, and continuously expands its "circle of friends" in economic and trade cooperation. In the first four months, China's imports and exports with emerging markets such as ASEAN and Latin America maintained rapid growth of over 15%, while trade with traditional markets such as the European Union and South Korea remained stable with an upward trend. The benefits of China's zero-tariff measures for Africa are gradually being released, with bilateral trade exceeding 800 billion yuan for the first time during the same period. African specialty products are enriching the Chinese consumer market, while high-quality Chinese products are empowering Africa's development and construction. The deep integration of "exporting to China" and "buying in China" reflects China's persistent high-level opening-up, continuously sending a firm signal of mutually beneficial cooperation and shared prosperity to the world.
Building a strong trading nation, promoting the quality and efficiency of foreign trade, and facilitating balanced development of imports and exports are inherent requirements for China to advance high-quality development, and also represent its responsibility in promoting the construction of an open world economy. China's total goods trade has ranked first in the world for nine consecutive years, with its share of international import and export markets remaining stable. From continuously improving foreign-related economic and trade institutional rules to steadily expanding pilot free trade zones and promoting institutional opening-up; from actively implementing free trade agreements and deepening regional economic and trade cooperation to participating in global trade governance and promoting the improvement of multilateral economic and trade rules, China is taking concrete actions to uphold the multilateral trading system and help global trade develop smoothly.
The "quality" of foreign trade reflects the "resilience" of China's economy and highlights the "stability" of the beginning of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. A China committed to high-quality development remains a trustworthy and reliable stabilizing force in a turbulent world, continuously nurturing opportunities, conveying hope, and gathering momentum for the world.
