Long columns of engineering equipment wait to be loaded onto transport vessels for shipment to overseas markets at the Port of Yantai, East China's Shandong Province on Tuesday. China's exports of electromechanical products soared 29.5 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2021, customs data showed on the same day. Photo: VCG

China turned in an impressive transcript of foreign trade records on Tuesday, with its exports and imports for the first 11 months already outnumbering the 2020 full-year reading, speaking indisputably to the country's rising trade clout globally only days before the 20th anniversary of its WTO entry. 

Growth in both exports and imports for November beat market estimates, official data showed, as China's trade prowess held up in the face of a continuation of pandemic uncertainty, experts said, expecting the country to extend its trade strength into the next year, thereby paving the way for the economy to hold steady throughout 2022.

With China's trade resilience powering up the global economic recovery amid the pandemic, observers hope its share of global trade will continue its upward trajectory, cementing its role as a vital stabilizer in the world trade landscape.

Stellar performance 

In the first 11 months of the year, the country's exports and imports rose 22 percent year-on-year to 35.39 trillion yuan ($5.56 trillion), topping the full-year number for last year (32.16 trillion yuan), according to customs data on Tuesday.

The superlative trade figures are even more conspicuous in US dollar terms amid the yuan's strength. The country's exports and imports rose 31.3 percent year-on-year to $5.47 trillion in US dollar terms, per customs data.

In November alone, dollar-denominated export growth registered 22 percent while import growth hit 31.7 percent, both above market expectations. 

After China resolved its domestic power crunch in October, production and exports both generated better-than-expected performance, Tian Yun, former vice director of the Beijing Economic Operation Association, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"The robust export growth reading in November might be a result of the resurgence of COVID-19," Nomura economists wrote in a note sent to the Global Times on Tuesday, adding that surging import prices were in part attributable to the brisk import growth.

The jump in imports in November was largely due to the China International Import Expo that was held at the beginning of the month and the steady basis level of the Chinese economy on the whole, Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

In specifics, China's imports and exports to major trading partners including ASEAN, the EU and the US all witnessed a significant increase in the first 11 months.

ASEAN maintained its position as China's largest trading partner, with trade with China up 29.8 percent to $789.53 billion in January-November.

This amount was followed by China's trade with the EU which jumped by 29.2 percent to $747.63 billion during the period.

Meanwhile, trade with the US, China's third-largest trading partner, posted a surge of 30.2 percent to $682.32 billion during the first 11 months.

Chinese experts and traders are betting on the still-raging pandemic outside the country and notably a sustained boom in new ways of cross-border trade such as livestreaming commerce to underpin the continuation of China's trade strength in the remainder of the year and beyond. 

"A substantial increase in foreign trade in December is still possible… The pandemic in some Southeast Asian countries has seen resurgences, and it will be an opportunity for Chinese companies to fill the gap in international supply and demand in a timely manner," Bai said.

Liu Chang, founder of MADEINRED INC, a TikTok Shop Partner which helps Chinese brands sell to overseas market via livestreaming, said that cross-border sales are expanding quickly on the new track, with 3C products and clothes popular among foreign clients.

 "Since we launched the first livestream sales for the UK market on TikTok in July, sales surged from a couple of pounds to thousands of pounds for each live sale. Sales are increasing by three to five times on a monthly basis," Liu told the Global Times, adding that the company has nurtured four live-streamers to sell the products to overseas markets.

 "We are optimistic about the growth of cross-border live streaming selling. Now we have sold to many markets via livestreaming, and next we'll target South America and Africa," Liu said.

Christmas decoration exports have seen as much as 50 percent growth this year, according to Ji Chengbo, from Bosen decoration company in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province.  

"Orders have rebounded in all markets. We have increased our stock of goods and we're actually sold out right now. The electricity rationing in October had little impact on the production and foreign trade. Now we're expanding production and expect sales next year to maintain the growth rate of this year," Ji told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The sustained trade strength is seen as laying the foundation for the economy to hold steady throughout next year. 

An economy blue paper was published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Monday, putting China's full-year GDP growth at 8 percent for 2021 before slowing to around 5.3 percent in 2022 amid uncertainty over the pandemic. 

At an economic work-themed meeting on Monday, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee highlighted that steadiness would top the agenda of the next year's economic work and progress will be made while ensuring stability, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

Growing trade clout

The galloping trade growth for the first 11 months is considered to have underlined China's rising profile in the global trade landscape since it joined the WTO on December 11, 2001.

It is expected that China's share in global trade will continue to increase, He Weiwen, a former senior trade official and a member of the Executive Council of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

China's goods exports and imports as a percentage of the world's total amounted to 13.1 percent in 2020, according to official numbers. This compares to a reading of around 4 percent in the year of China's entry to the WTO, media reported.

 "The stability of China's supply chain and its adherence to free trade and multilateral systems makes it a major stabilizer of global trading," He said.

It is estimated that China's total exports and imports may reach $6 trillion for the whole of 2021 with exports reaching twice the scale of the US, the second-largest exporter globally after China. Imports are approaching the level of the US, the biggest importer in the world, He said.

"In the future China will play a greater role in global trade and continue to provide the products needed by all countries in the world and growth for export as the world's largest commodity import market," He said.

Such a trend, as trade experts noted, is set to better hedge the global economy against COVID-19-linked challenges and woes over protectionist policies that have over the years prevailed, especially in the US. 

Long columns of engineering equipment wait to be loaded onto transport vessels for shipment to overseas markets at the Port of Yantai, East China's Shandong Province on Tuesday. China's exports of electromechanical products soared 29.5 percent year-on-year in the first half of 2021, customs data showed on the same day. Photo: VCG

China turned in an impressive transcript of foreign trade records on Tuesday, with its exports and imports for the first 11 months already outnumbering the 2020 full-year reading, speaking indisputably to the country's rising trade clout globally only days before the 20th anniversary of its WTO entry. 

Growth in both exports and imports for November beat market estimates, official data showed, as China's trade prowess held up in the face of a continuation of pandemic uncertainty, experts said, expecting the country to extend its trade strength into the next year, thereby paving the way for the economy to hold steady throughout 2022.

With China's trade resilience powering up the global economic recovery amid the pandemic, observers hope its share of global trade will continue its upward trajectory, cementing its role as a vital stabilizer in the world trade landscape.

Stellar performance 

In the first 11 months of the year, the country's exports and imports rose 22 percent year-on-year to 35.39 trillion yuan ($5.56 trillion), topping the full-year number for last year (32.16 trillion yuan), according to customs data on Tuesday.

The superlative trade figures are even more conspicuous in US dollar terms amid the yuan's strength. The country's exports and imports rose 31.3 percent year-on-year to $5.47 trillion in US dollar terms, per customs data.

In November alone, dollar-denominated export growth registered 22 percent while import growth hit 31.7 percent, both above market expectations. 

After China resolved its domestic power crunch in October, production and exports both generated better-than-expected performance, Tian Yun, former vice director of the Beijing Economic Operation Association, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"The robust export growth reading in November might be a result of the resurgence of COVID-19," Nomura economists wrote in a note sent to the Global Times on Tuesday, adding that surging import prices were in part attributable to the brisk import growth.

The jump in imports in November was largely due to the China International Import Expo that was held at the beginning of the month and the steady basis level of the Chinese economy on the whole, Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

In specifics, China's imports and exports to major trading partners including ASEAN, the EU and the US all witnessed a significant increase in the first 11 months.

ASEAN maintained its position as China's largest trading partner, with trade with China up 29.8 percent to $789.53 billion in January-November.

This amount was followed by China's trade with the EU which jumped by 29.2 percent to $747.63 billion during the period.

Meanwhile, trade with the US, China's third-largest trading partner, posted a surge of 30.2 percent to $682.32 billion during the first 11 months.

Chinese experts and traders are betting on the still-raging pandemic outside the country and notably a sustained boom in new ways of cross-border trade such as livestreaming commerce to underpin the continuation of China's trade strength in the remainder of the year and beyond. 

"A substantial increase in foreign trade in December is still possible… The pandemic in some Southeast Asian countries has seen resurgences, and it will be an opportunity for Chinese companies to fill the gap in international supply and demand in a timely manner," Bai said.

Liu Chang, founder of MADEINRED INC, a TikTok Shop Partner which helps Chinese brands sell to overseas market via livestreaming, said that cross-border sales are expanding quickly on the new track, with 3C products and clothes popular among foreign clients.

 "Since we launched the first livestream sales for the UK market on TikTok in July, sales surged from a couple of pounds to thousands of pounds for each live sale. Sales are increasing by three to five times on a monthly basis," Liu told the Global Times, adding that the company has nurtured four live-streamers to sell the products to overseas markets.

 "We are optimistic about the growth of cross-border live streaming selling. Now we have sold to many markets via livestreaming, and next we'll target South America and Africa," Liu said.

Christmas decoration exports have seen as much as 50 percent growth this year, according to Ji Chengbo, from Bosen decoration company in Yiwu, East China's Zhejiang Province.  

"Orders have rebounded in all markets. We have increased our stock of goods and we're actually sold out right now. The electricity rationing in October had little impact on the production and foreign trade. Now we're expanding production and expect sales next year to maintain the growth rate of this year," Ji told the Global Times on Tuesday.

The sustained trade strength is seen as laying the foundation for the economy to hold steady throughout next year. 

An economy blue paper was published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences on Monday, putting China's full-year GDP growth at 8 percent for 2021 before slowing to around 5.3 percent in 2022 amid uncertainty over the pandemic. 

At an economic work-themed meeting on Monday, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee highlighted that steadiness would top the agenda of the next year's economic work and progress will be made while ensuring stability, the Xinhua News Agency reported. 

Growing trade clout

The galloping trade growth for the first 11 months is considered to have underlined China's rising profile in the global trade landscape since it joined the WTO on December 11, 2001.

It is expected that China's share in global trade will continue to increase, He Weiwen, a former senior trade official and a member of the Executive Council of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

China's goods exports and imports as a percentage of the world's total amounted to 13.1 percent in 2020, according to official numbers. This compares to a reading of around 4 percent in the year of China's entry to the WTO, media reported.

 "The stability of China's supply chain and its adherence to free trade and multilateral systems makes it a major stabilizer of global trading," He said.

It is estimated that China's total exports and imports may reach $6 trillion for the whole of 2021 with exports reaching twice the scale of the US, the second-largest exporter globally after China. Imports are approaching the level of the US, the biggest importer in the world, He said.

"In the future China will play a greater role in global trade and continue to provide the products needed by all countries in the world and growth for export as the world's largest commodity import market," He said.

Such a trend, as trade experts noted, is set to better hedge the global economy against COVID-19-linked challenges and woes over protectionist policies that have over the years prevailed, especially in the US.