As the competition between China and the United States intensifies, global trade will still show resilience in 2025, with trade in goods growing by 4.6%. This is inseparable from China’s adjustment of its foreign trade strategy.
The new direction of China’s foreign trade stabilization policy focuses on market diversification, upgrading of export structure and deepening regional cooperation.
Market Diversification: Putting Eggs in More Baskets
Faced with the uncertainty in the US market, the support points of China’s foreign trade are accelerating to spread to emerging markets around the world.
In the first two months of this year, China’s exports to Africa surged by 49.9%, exports to ASEAN increased by 29.4%, and exports to the EU increased by 27.8%.
This pattern of “falling in the United States and rising in emerging markets” means that China’s exports are becoming less sensitive to fluctuations in a single market.
More importantly, ASEAN has firmly become China’s largest trading partner, and the industrial chain coordination between the two parties in the fields of electronic components, electromechanical products and other fields is becoming increasingly close.
Latin America, the Middle East and other regions have also become important pivots. In 2025, the trade volume between China and Latin America reached US$549 billion, a record high.
The essence of market diversification is to take eggs out of one basket and put them into an entire container.
Export structure upgrade: becoming a “factory of factories”
China’s role in the global supply chain has undergone a fundamental change, from exporting mainly end-consumer goods to providing core components and production equipment for the global manufacturing industry.
In 2025, China’s exports of intermediate goods and capital goods will increase by 9.7% and 6.0% respectively year-on-year, driving overall exports by 5.6 percentage points in total, becoming the core force for foreign trade growth.
This means that China is increasingly becoming a “factory of factories” and has significantly increased its exports of industrial components such as smartphone parts, processors, and lithium batteries. These components are mainly shipped to Southeast Asia and other places for final assembly.
The American “Fortune” magazine also pointed out that in the future we may buy fewer “Made in China” products, but more products will have internal components made in China.
This model of being embedded deep in the global industrial chain has enhanced the irreplaceability of China’s foreign trade.
Deepening regional cooperation: building a closer trade network
At the policy level, China is shifting from openness to the flow of commodity factors to institutional openness such as rules, regulations, and standards to build a more stable external environment.
Key measures include:
- Upgrading the Free Trade Agreement Network: In 2025, China and ASEAN signed the Free Trade Area Upgrade Protocol 3.0, covering nine areas such as digital economy and supply chain interconnection, further solidifying the foundation for regional economic integration.
- Optimize the import structure: China will give full play to its huge market advantage and focus on expanding the import of advanced technology and equipment and high-quality consumer goods.
Starting from January 1, 2025, a tentative import tax rate lower than the most-favored nation tax rate will be implemented for 935 commodities. - Promote RMB internationalization: The policy recommends expanding cross-border RMB products, services and application scenarios to reduce corporate exchange risks.
These efforts have continued to highlight China’s status as an “anchor of stability” in the Asia-Pacific industrial and supply chains.
China’s foreign trade is building stronger risk resistance through market decentralization, role upgrading and rule integration.
