From January to July this year, ASEAN continued to be China’s largest trading partner. The trade volume of goods between China and ASEAN (hereinafter referred to as the same) was 3.92 trillion yuan, an increase of 10.5% year-on-year (hereinafter referred to as the same), 4.3 percentage points faster than the average growth rate of China’s foreign trade in the same period.
From January to July this year, China’s exports to ASEAN were 2.36 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.7%; China’s imports from ASEAN were 1.56 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.9%; China’s trade surplus with ASEAN was 793.55 billion yuan, an increase of 33.2%.
China has maintained its position as ASEAN’s largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years, and ASEAN has also been China’s largest trading partner for four consecutive years, that is, China and ASEAN have been each other’s largest trading partners for four consecutive years.
Xu Ningning, Chairman of the RCEP Industrial Cooperation Committee and China’s Chief ASEAN Business Expert, recently analyzed in an interview with a reporter from China Economic Times that the main reasons for the formation of this trade situation between China and ASEAN are as follows.
First, the two sides have a common need for cooperation. China and ASEAN and its member states have reached and implemented a series of multilateral and bilateral cooperation consensuses, and have achieved mutual success and moved forward hand in hand with political harmony and business communication.
Second, both sides are committed to economic growth, actively developing economic and trade complementarity, and enterprises are exploring cooperation opportunities.
Third, the two sides have implemented a free trade agreement and opened their markets to each other, forming an integrated and linked growth, leading development with innovation.
Fourth, ASEAN’s implementation of the construction of the economic community and China’s implementation of the “dual circulation” economic development support each other, and the two sides have built favorable conditions for jointly building the “Belt and Road”.
Fifth, the rapid growth of two-way investment has driven free exchanges. In 2023, China’s investment in ASEAN increased by as much as 44.6%.
Sixth, the two sides live next to each other, with convenient transportation, and interconnection has played a positive role. Now the number of direct flights between the two sides has reached more than 2,300 flights per week, the cross-border railway train between China, Laos, Thailand and Malaysia has been launched, and the transportation volume of the railway-sea combined transport train of the Western Land-Sea Corridor has increased by 20.8% in the first half of this year.
At present, China and ASEAN, as the world’s second and fifth largest economies respectively, have a total economic output of more than one-fifth of the world, and their contribution to the global economy exceeds 30%, making them a veritable important engine for global economic recovery.
In 2023, China’s trade with ASEAN accounted for 15.4% of China’s total foreign trade; from January to July this year, this proportion rose to 15.8%, accounting for 2.8 percentage points more than China’s second largest trading partner, China’s trade with the European Union, and 4.8 percentage points more than China’s third largest trading partner, China’s trade with the United States.
Xu Ningning analyzed that from January to July this year, among the ten ASEAN member states, the top three trading partners with China were Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, respectively. China’s trade with Vietnam increased by 24.1% year-on-year, China’s trade with Malaysia increased by 13.7% year-on-year, and China’s trade with Indonesia increased by 4.1% year-on-year. China has established a comprehensive strategic partnership with these three countries and has reached important consensus on the construction of a community with a shared future.
Xu Ningning said that the top five domestic provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in terms of trade with ASEAN are Guangdong Province, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, Shandong Province and Shanghai. The main reasons are: first, these provinces and cities have strong industrial complementarity with ASEAN; second, the investment growth of enterprises in these provinces and cities in ASEAN drives trade; third, these provinces and cities have a long-standing foundation for economic and trade cooperation with ASEAN countries.