The latest data released by the General Administration of Customs recently showed that in the first five months of 2025, my country's total import and export value of goods reached 17.94 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.5%, continuing the growth trend; the total import and export value in May was 3.81 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.7%. Against the backdrop of slowing global economic growth, weak demand in European and American markets, and continued pressure on supply chain reconstruction, this set of data fully demonstrates the strong resilience and structural optimization trend of my country's goods trade, highlights the stability and competitiveness of China's economy in a complex global environment, and shows the bright prospects for high-quality development of my country's economy.

Foreign trade is of great significance to the stable growth of my country's economy. The Central Economic Work Conference clearly states that one of the key tasks of economic work in 2025 is to "expand high-level opening up to the outside world, stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment." The global economic and trade environment is complex and changeable, and China's foreign trade takes the tone of stable quantity and quality improvement, showing multiple distinctive characteristics.

The growth rate of foreign trade has rebounded month by month. Judging from the monthly trend of foreign trade, it has rebounded month by month since the beginning of the year, achieving growth rates of 1.3%, 2.4% and 2.5% in the first 3, 4 and 5 months respectively. In particular, the monthly exports in May were 2.28 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.3% year-on-year, and export demand for high-value-added categories such as mechanical and electrical products and automobiles was strong. Under pressure, my country's foreign trade has broken through the ice and made steady improvements. This gradual recovery trajectory confirms the resilience of the industrial chain and the effectiveness of policy regulation.

Since the beginning of this year, my country's export destination adjustments have continued, and more shifted to non-US regions. The total value of Sino-US trade has declined, and the foreign trade partner pattern has shown the characteristics of "rise of emerging markets and adjustment of traditional markets". With the deepening of regional cooperation, ASEAN and Africa have become new engines of foreign trade growth, and the "circle of friends" of win-win cooperation between China and foreign countries is growing, and my country's foreign trade market has built a diversified support system. Relevant data shows that in May this year, my country's exports to ASEAN, the EU, Africa and Central Asia increased by 16.9%, 13.7%, 35.3% and 8.8% respectively, driving the overall export to maintain stable expansion. Among them, ASEAN is firmly ranked as China's largest trading partner, with a total bilateral trade value of 3.02 trillion yuan in the first five months, an increase of 9.1% year-on-year, accounting for 16.8% of my country's total foreign trade value. The scale of China-Africa trade reached a record high. In the first five months, my country's imports and exports to African countries were 963.21 billion yuan, an increase of 12.4%, accounting for 5.4% of my country's total import and export value; of which the export volume reached 599.57 billion yuan, an increase of 20.2%, indicating that the acceptance of "Made in China" in the African market is increasing, especially in the surge in import demand for electric vehicles and construction machinery. During the same period, my country's total import and export value of countries jointly built the "Belt and Road" reached 9.24 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.2%.

China's foreign trade "gold content" has significantly improved, and the equipment manufacturing industry, which reflects industrial supporting and integrated capabilities, drives export upgrading. Advanced manufacturing industry empowered by new technologies has relied on product competitiveness and industrial chain advantages, which has strongly supported China's stable growth in foreign trade. In the first five months, China's equipment manufacturing exports were 6.22 trillion yuan, an increase of 9.2%, accounting for 58.3% of the total export value, and its contribution to overall export growth reached 73%, highlighting the structural transformation of my country's exports from "increasing volume" to "high quality". Among them, the export of industrial robots increased by 55.4%, indicating that intelligent manufacturing is sought after by emerging markets; the export of electric vehicles increased by 19%, continuing to lead the global new energy market; the export of ships increased by 18.9%, reflecting the technical strength of high-end equipment; the export of integrated circuits increased by 18.9%, and my country's competitiveness in the midstream links of the semiconductor industry chain continued to increase. At the same time, the export of traditional labor-intensive products has dropped by 1.5%, which in turn confirms the trend of China's industrial transformation and upgrading, and high quality is becoming a new label for "Made in China".

Data shows that the total import and export value of private enterprises in the first five months reached 10.25 trillion yuan, an increase of 7%, accounting for 57.1% of my country's total foreign trade value; among which, the export growth rate reached 8%, and new business formats such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses were particularly active. At the same time, foreign-invested enterprises showed a recovery signal. The import and export of foreign-invested enterprises increased by 2.3% in the first five months, and the import and export volume accounted for 29% of my country's total foreign trade value, driving my country's overall import and export growth by 0.7 percentage points during the same period. This shows that an open China is still an industry center and supply chain hub that global investors are optimistic about.

With the deepening of the central government's rise strategy, China's regional foreign trade pattern has also changed. In the first five months of this year, the central region's import and export growth rate led the country, with the total import and export value of the six central provinces reaching 1.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 11.1% year-on-year, 8.6 percentage points higher than the national growth rate; the central region's import and export share in the country rose to 8.3%, becoming a new force driving the growth of national foreign trade.

my country's foreign trade report card for volume and quality improvement in the first five months fully demonstrated the strong resilience and endogenous driving force of my country's economy, but also further strengthened our confidence in promoting quality improvement and upgrading of foreign trade, expanding diversified markets, and optimizing the trade structure. At present, the global market is still facing many unstable and uncertain factors, but the fundamentals of China's economic development are stable and improving and long-term improvement have not changed. Working together from the supply and demand ends to strengthen resource allocation capabilities for domestic and international markets will inject continuous momentum into the high-quality development of my country's foreign trade.