The 30th anniversary of the establishment of dialogue relations between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) takes place in 2021. Since the Framework Agreement on China-ASEAN Comprehensive Economic Cooperation was signed in 2002, the two sides have made important progress in cooperation in trade and investment. 

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, China and ASEAN became each other's largest trading partner for the first time in 2020. In the first half of this year, bilateral trade exceeded $410 billion, up 38.2 percent year on year. ASEAN remains China's largest trading partner, and their cumulative investment exceeds $310 billion.

Since the pandemic broke out, China and ASEAN have joined hands to fight the virus and overcome the difficulties together, Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a congratulatory letter sent on September 10 to the 18th China-ASEAN Expo and China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, which are held in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region from September 10 to 13.

At the China-ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting in August, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi called for cooperation in vigorously promoting economic recovery between the two sides.

He said China would like to work with ASEAN to implement the ASEAN Comprehensive Recovery Framework, and forge their all-round recovery cooperation with trade and investment cooperation as the basis.

Here is a quick view of what has been achieved between China and ASEAN in economic cooperation.