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China's General Administration of Customs said on August 7 that the country's total goods trade — exports plus imports — reached 30.13 trillion yuan (about US$4.46 trillion) in the first seven months of 2026, up 17.3% year-on-year. Of this, exports totaled 17.44 trillion yuan, up 14% year-on-year, while imports totaled 12.69 trillion yuan, up 22% year-on-year — with import growth clearly outpacing export growth for the first time on a sustained basis this year. Measured in US dollars, exports and imports rose 18.5% and 26.7% respectively over the same seven months, with the trade surplus widening slightly to US$687.37 billion from US$683.5 billion a year earlier; the gap between the yuan-denominated and dollar-denominated growth rates mainly reflects exchange-rate movements during the period. Overall, the figures extend a steady-to-strong trend in China's foreign trade so far this year, combining rising volume with improving quality, and lay a relatively solid foundation for full-year trade growth.

On the export side, mechanical and electrical (machinery and electronics) products continued to act as the "ballast" of China's trade growth. Customs data show that exports of mechanical and electrical products reached 11.12 trillion yuan in the first seven months, up 21.2% year-on-year and accounting for 63.8% of China's total exports — 3.8 percentage points higher than in the same period last year. This category includes higher-tech products such as electric vehicles, 3D printers and industrial robots, reflecting China's continued shift toward higher value-added, higher-tech exports. This also marks another month in which mechanical and electrical products' share of exports has stayed above 60% for several consecutive months this year, pointing to strengthening competitiveness for these industries within global supply chains.

On the import side, mechanical and electrical products also showed a rising share. In the first seven months, China's imports of electromechanical products reached 5.31 trillion yuan, up 29.7% year-on-year, accounting for 41.9% of total import value. Analysts note that import growth consistently outpacing export growth reflects both strong domestic demand and demand from China's industrial supply chains for advanced equipment, core components and raw materials, and suggests that policy measures aimed at expanding openness and promoting more balanced trade development are gradually taking effect. This also suggests that, amid an accelerating restructuring of global supply chains, Chinese firms are diversifying their overseas sourcing and gaining greater autonomy in choosing suppliers.

The surge in exports of green, low-carbon products stands out as one of the most striking highlights in this round of trade data. Customs figures show that in the first seven months, China's exports of electric vehicles jumped 71.2% year-on-year, exports of lithium batteries rose 35.8%, and exports of wind turbines rose 34.8% — together forming a core driver of trade growth. Industry observers say this trend is closely tied to the continued maturing of China's new-energy industrial chain and companies' accelerated push into overseas markets, and also reflects rising global demand for China's green manufacturing capacity amid the worldwide energy transition. As more overseas markets accelerate electrification and clean-energy build-out, export orders for China's related industries are expected to keep growing, making green, low-carbon products widely seen as a key area to watch for the future growth of China's foreign trade.

Looking at monthly data, trade growth in July alone was similarly strong, further underscoring the role of innovation-driven products in export growth. According to customs data and related media reports, China's exports rose 23.9% year-on-year in July while imports rose 27.7%, with the month's trade surplus reaching US$112.5 billion, up from US$97.7 billion a year earlier and above market expectations. High-tech product exports jumped 40.7% year-on-year in July, and semiconductor export value nearly doubled from a year earlier. Market analysts attribute this partly to sustained strong global demand tied to AI-related industrial chains, while some also note that certain companies may have front-loaded shipments to the US ahead of potential new tariffs, which could have partly boosted that month's export growth rate.

In terms of trading partners, ASEAN remained China's largest trading partner. In the first seven months, trade between China and ASEAN totaled 5.14 trillion yuan, up 20% year-on-year, while trade between China and Belt and Road partner countries reached 15.36 trillion yuan, up 15.5% year-on-year — accounting for more than half of China's total foreign trade. In the same period, China's trade with the European Union grew 9.5%, with Latin America 15.4%, and with Africa 18.9%, all relatively fast-growing. By contrast, China's exports to the United States rose just 2.6% year-on-year and imports from the US grew only 1.4%, well below the growth rates with China's other major trading partners. This divergence suggests that, amid continued uncertainty in China-US economic and trade relations, China's foreign trade is becoming less reliant on the US market, while trade ties with emerging markets and developing economies continue to deepen, with regional economic integration and connectivity projects providing strong support for bilateral trade growth.

On the business side, private enterprises have become the main driving force behind China's trade growth. Customs data show that private firms accounted for nearly 60% of China's total foreign trade value in the first seven months, continuing to be China's largest category of foreign trade operator. Official Chinese channels, including the State Council's website and Xinhua, note that "innovation-driven" exports — represented by higher-tech, higher value-added goods — are increasingly becoming a core engine of China's foreign trade growth, a trend corroborated by the rising share of mechanical/electrical and green, low-carbon products in total exports. Analysts say private firms, with more flexible operating mechanisms and faster market responsiveness, have been active in developing emerging markets and differentiated products, making them an important force behind the continued optimization of China's trade structure.

This year, uneven global economic recovery, rising trade protectionism in some major economies, and persistent pressure from tariff barriers and supply-chain restructuring have added considerable uncertainty to the global trade environment. Against this backdrop, China's ability to sustain double-digit-plus overall trade growth, alongside an export structure shifting faster toward higher-tech, higher value-added products, is seen by some as reflecting the resilience and overall competitiveness of China's industrial and supply chains. Several institutions and commentators say that efforts by Chinese companies — private firms in particular — to diversify overseas markets and raise the technological content of their products are an important reason the trade data has kept posting strong growth. A number of international institutions had previously taken a relatively cautious view of global trade growth, and China's trade performance over the first seven months is seen as having outperformed general expectations, offering a point of reference for other emerging-market economies navigating a shifting external environment.

Taken together, the trade data for the first seven months of this year show China's foreign trade expanding in scale while simultaneously upgrading in structure: overall import and export value continues to climb, with import growth outpacing export growth, indicating simultaneous growth in domestic demand and industrial supply-chain demand; meanwhile, the share of mechanical/electrical products and green, low-carbon products in exports keeps rising, becoming a new engine of trade growth. Observers expect that as related industrial policies continue to be implemented and companies further pursue overseas market expansion, China's foreign trade is likely to maintain relatively steady growth in the second half of the year. For Thailand and other ASEAN countries, the 20% year-on-year growth in China-ASEAN trade over the first seven months suggests that, as China's foreign trade structure continues to be optimized, opportunities for regional supply-chain cooperation and market access could expand further.