China’s Foreign Trade Booms in Jan-Feb 2026, Showing Strong Vitality in 15th Five-Year Plan Opening

The State Council Information Office held a press conference today to release the performance of China’s national economy during the first two months of 2026. As the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, China’s foreign trade has maintained rapid growth on the basis of sound performance last year, a trend that fully demonstrates the strong vitality and resilience of the country’s foreign trade sector.

Data released at the conference shows that China’s goods import and export grew rapidly in January and February, with its trade structure continuously optimized and notable characteristics of both volume growth and quality improvement. These positive signs fully reflect the growing vitality of China’s foreign trade development, supported by multiple favorable factors.

First, the growth of imports and exports has accelerated significantly. Driven by the marginal recovery of global trade demand, the sound development of artificial intelligence applications and the Spring Festival holiday, China’s total goods import and export volume increased by 18.3% year-on-year in the first two months, a sharp acceleration compared with the whole of last year. Both export and import growth rates have picked up: goods exports rose by 19.2%, 13.1 percentage points faster than the full-year figure of last year, while goods imports increased by 17.1%, an acceleration of 16.6 percentage points. Notably, the rebound in imports outpaced that in exports, which not only reflects the pull of improved domestic demand on imports but also offers new opportunities for trade development of countries around the world.

Second, the effectiveness of trade diversification continues to show. On the basis of mutual benefit and win-win results, China has expanded trade exchanges with countries around the world, promoted high-quality development of the Belt and Road (B&R) Initiative, steadily advanced unilateral and independent opening-up, and pushed forward the construction of free trade pilot zones, all of which have continued to support the growth of foreign trade. In the first two months, China’s total imports and exports with ASEAN and the EU increased by 20.3% and 19.9% respectively, while those with B&R participating countries and regions rose by 20%, indicating that China’s trade partners are expanding steadily.

Third, new growth drivers are constantly expanding. With the upgrading of China’s industries, the competitiveness of export products has been enhanced, the proportion of manufactured goods exports has increased, and exports of mechanical and electrical products as well as high-tech products have grown rapidly, providing stronger impetus for foreign trade exports. In January and February, exports of mechanical and electrical products increased by 24.3%, and those of high-tech products rose by 24.2%. Exports of high-tech products such as integrated circuits and ships maintained a sound growth momentum. Meanwhile, the sound development of digital trade and green trade has also helped form new growth drivers for foreign trade.

Fourth, the vitality of development continues to be released. The vitality of China’s foreign trade is reflected in the rapid growth of new formats and models, as well as the active efforts of various foreign trade enterprises to explore overseas markets and expand new space for foreign trade. In the first two months, private enterprises’ imports and exports increased by 22.8% year-on-year, outpacing the overall growth rate, while those of foreign-invested enterprises rose by 15.3%, maintaining a steady and rapid growth.

Three key factors underpin the sound development of China’s foreign trade. Firstly, Chinese products are highly adaptable to global demand in terms of both quality and standards. Secondly, China provides high-quality and stable supply, which, amid the volatile international situation, enables the country to continuously supply high-quality products to countries around the world. Thirdly, China’s foreign trade development has always been based on mutual benefit and win-win results: while providing high-quality product supply to the world, China also actively expands imports, and the holding of import expositions offers Chinese development opportunities for global development.

China’s goods imports and exports have maintained a sound growth momentum since the start of this year, with a solid foundation and sufficient vitality for foreign trade development. Moving forward, China will adhere to mutual benefit and win-win results, steadily expand institutional opening-up, actively promote independent opening-up, stabilize the scale and optimize the structure of foreign trade, foster and expand new drivers for foreign trade development, advance high-quality development of the B&R Initiative, and actively expand imports to promote balanced development of foreign trade.