Exports are key to fuelling China’s economic growth. Since its accession to the World Trade Organisation in 2001, Chinese exports of goods have grown more than tenfold, climbing from less than $300 billion in 2001 to almost $3.4 trillion last year.
Among its most important export partners are the US, the EU and the ten ASEAN member countries, which overtook the U.S. as China’s most important export market in 2023, following a drop in U.S. imports from China amid rising tensions.
New on the list of China’s most important partners is Russia, which saw imports from China surge more than 65 percent since 2021, the year before its invasion of Ukraine.
