On June 5, 2026, data released by the Ministry of Commerce revealed a structural change in China’s services trade.
In the first four months, China’s service trade deficit narrowed significantly by 139.74 billion yuan year-on-year. This change was not due to a contraction in total volume, but was driven by a strong 15% growth in exports and a slight decrease in imports of 0.8% against the backdrop of a year-on-year growth of 4.9% in total import and export volume.
Behind the data is the profound transformation of service trade from scale expansion to knowledge-driven and quality improvement.
In terms of the overall situation, from January to April 2026, my country’s total service import and export volume was 2.48532 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.9%.
The more critical structural changes are reflected in: service exports reached 985 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15%, becoming the main driving force for growth; service imports were 1.50032 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.8%, and the demand structure tended to be optimized; as a result, the service trade deficit narrowed to 515.32 billion yuan.
The growth rate of exports far exceeds that of imports, which directly promotes the significant narrowing of the deficit, indicating that the international competitiveness and foreign exchange earning ability of “China Services” are increasing.
Knowledge-intensive services have become the absolute main force in service trade, with import and export volume reaching 1.10418 billion yuan, accounting for 44.4% of the total service import and export.
Among them, the export performance was particularly impressive: the export of knowledge-intensive services was 544.09 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.7%; the export of personal culture and entertainment services increased by 39.5%, and the export of intellectual property royalties increased by 20.8%, leading all subdivisions.
Song Siyuan, an associate researcher at the Institute of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said that this shows that my country’s service trade is accelerating its transformation into a knowledge-driven and technology-led one, and the supply capacity of high-tech and high value-added services has been effectively enhanced.
The analysis pointed out that in terms of intellectual property royalties, domestic investment in scientific and technological innovation continues to be implemented, and self-developed technology is shifting from “importing payment” to “external licensing to generate revenue”; in terms of personal cultural and entertainment services, domestic film and television, games, animation and other IPs are accelerating the global implementation, promoting the extension of cultural and creative content from domestic consumption to cross-border monetization.
At the same time, imports of knowledge-intensive services were 560.09 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.7%, reflecting a reduced reliance on overseas high-tech services.
Travel services are the fastest growing sector among the top four service export fields, with an export value of 147.15 billion yuan, a significant year-on-year increase of 30.4%.
This high growth rate is closely related to the recovery of the inbound tourism market.
Policy dividends continue to be released. For example, in the first quarter, the outbound tax refund sales in Guangzhou and Shenzhen increased by 186% and 145% respectively.
The prosperity of inbound tourism has directly driven the local cultural tourism industry and employment.
Taking Aba Prefecture as an example, from January to April, the revenue of its cultural tourism service industry enterprises increased by 14.3% year-on-year, the number of jobs absorbed by the industry increased by 21.6% year-on-year, and employee salaries payable increased significantly by 46.6%.
This confirms the multi-level driving effect of travel service exports on the economy.
Unlike the knowledge-driven export side, the highlight of the import side is reflected in the linkage of the real economy.
The import volume of transportation services reached 316.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.9%, which was the fastest growing among the top five service import fields.
Zhu Keli, the founding president of the Guoyan New Economic Research Institute, analyzed that the reason for the substantial growth in the import of transportation services is that my country’s foreign trade of goods has sufficient resilience. The volume of physical imports and exports of bulk commodities, mechanical and electrical products has remained high, and the demand for cross-border shipping, air transportation and other supporting logistics has subsequently increased.
This shows that the development of trade in services and trade in goods are not separate. The high growth in imports of transportation services exactly reflects China’s deep embeddedness in the global supply chain and the solid foundation of its physical foreign trade.
The data in the first four months outlines a clear development path for China’s trade in services: the driving force for growth is switching from traditional fields to knowledge- and technology-intensive fields.
Knowledge-intensive services account for nearly half of the country. The export of travel services demonstrates cultural soft power and consumption transformation capabilities, while the import of transportation services reflects close coordination with the real economy.
Li Jun, director of the Institute of International Trade in Services of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, pointed out that my country’s key areas of participation in international division of labor and economic and trade cooperation are deepening and expanding into the service field.
The narrowing of the deficit is an intuitive result of this structural optimization process.
As domestic service supply capabilities, especially high value-added service capabilities, continue to improve, the position of “Chinese services” in the global value chain is expected to be further consolidated, providing more solid support for the high-quality development of foreign trade.
