China's foreign trade up 4 percent in first 9 months

Exports reached 19.95 trillion yuan ($2.81 trillion), increasing by 7.1 percent year-on-year; imports were 13.66 trillion yuan ($1.92 trillion), decreasing by 0.2 percent year-on-year, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).

In September alone, China's goods imports and exports increased by 8 percent year on year to 4.04 trillion yuan, marking the highest monthly increase so far this year.

Since the beginning of 2025, China's foreign trade has sustained a steady and positive development trend amid a complex external environment, said Wang Jun, deputy head of the GAC, at a press conference.

Wang said that the expansion of China's goods trade has accelerated quarter by quarter, with the growth rate amounting to 6 percent in the third quarter of this year, following 1.3-percent and 4.5-percent increases in the first and second quarters, respectively. 

The main reason is the continuous optimization and innovation of export product structures, stated Wang. For instance, AI robots have achieved great success in the international market, with the export of industrial robots increasing by 54.9 percent, he added.

Additionally, Wang also highlighted that China's foreign trade market has become more diversified.

In the first nine months of 2025, China's goods trade with Belt and Road partner countries totaled 17.37 trillion yuan, 6.2 percent higher than a year earlier, GAC data revealed.

China's trade with the economies in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation increased by 2 percent, reaching 19.41 trillion yuan, accounting for 57.8 percent of the total foreign trade value, said Lyu Daliang, director general of the Department of Statistics and Analysis of the GAC.

Earlier, it was reported major stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region fell sharply Monday amid fears of a renewed trade war between the world’s two largest economies, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose new triple-digit tariffs on Chinese imports