Editor's note: Tian Huifang is a senior research fellow of Institute of World Economics and Politics, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. This article reflects the author's views and not necessarily those of CGTN. It has been translated from Chinese and edited for clarity and brevity.

Since the founding of the People's Republic of China more than 70 years ago, the total volume of China's goods trade has soared from about $1.1 billion in 1950 to over $6 trillion in 2025, and its proportion in global trade has also increased from less than 1% to 18.2%. This process has not only reshaped the economic landscape of China, but has also profoundly shaped the division of labor in the global industrial chain and the trajectory of world economic development.

Relying on a complete industrial system and strong manufacturing capabilities, China's manufacturing added value has been ranked first in the world for 15 consecutive years, accounting for nearly 30% of the global total. With over 200 major industrial products produced, China ranks first in the world and is the only country in the world to have all industrial categories classified by the United Nations Industrial Classification. By 2025, China had not only cemented its position as the world's largest trading nation in goods, but also stood as the world's second-largest import market for 17 consecutive years. In the first three quarters of 2026, China's import and export of goods reached 39.94 trillion yuan ($5.8 trillion), a year-on-year increase of 18.8%; Among them, exports amounted to 23.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 16.4%, while imports amounted to 16.74 trillion yuan, an increase of 22.3%. The import growth rate is 5.9 percentage points higher than the export rate, indicating that China is both an important supplier and a continuously expanding global market.

Over the decades, China has exported massive amounts of high-quality and affordable electromechanical products, textiles, and daily consumer goods to the world, meeting the diverse needs of consumers in various countries and significantly enhancing the actual purchasing power of global consumers. During the periods of the epidemic and geopolitical fluctuations, China, with its efficient supply chain resilience, ensured the global supply of medical supplies, key components, and daily consumer goods; effectively alleviated global inflationary pressures; maintained the smoothness and security of the international industrial chain; and played a role as a "stable anchor" and innovation node in the reconstruction of the global industrial chain. At the same time, through the Belt and Road Initiative, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and other initiatives for the global good, China has optimized the global capital allocation, helped host country infrastructure construction and industrial upgrading, and promoted the coordinated development of the regional economy.

While the world has faced increasing unilateralism and trade protectionism in recent years, China has actively participated in WTO reform and the formulation of international economic and trade rules, worked to maintain the multilateral trading system with the WTO as the core, and promoted the development of the global economic governance system toward a more inclusive and balanced direction.

In December 2023, the Central Economic Work Conference of China proposed that China should use disruptive and cutting-edge technologies to stimulate new industries, models, and driving forces, and develop new quality productive forces. Since that time, China's foreign trade has also entered a new stage. Products such as AI, industrial robots, smart wearables, drones, new energy vehicles, energy storage batteries, wind power equipment, new materials, etc. have become new driving forces of China's export growth. Through international trade platforms such as the Canton Fair, they quickly complete product display, demand verification, order conversion, channel construction, and brand promotion.

By 2025, China's high-tech product exports had reached 5.25 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.2%. Among them, the export scale of "new three types" (new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, photovoltaic products) products was close to 1.3 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.5 times compared to 2020. In the first three quarters of 2026, the equipment manufacturing industry contributed nearly 90% of the export growth, integrated circuit exports increased by 99.1%, and exports of electric vehicles, lithium batteries, wind turbines, and parts increased by 72.3%, 36.4%, and 22.4%, respectively. At the 2026 Autumn Canton Fair, new quality productivity representative products such as intelligent robots, high-end equipment, and green building materials will get much visibility and gain significant attention. All these factors and developments indicate that the driving force of China's trade growth is shifting from traditional cost advantages to new advantages such as technology, quality, green attributes, and industrial supporting capabilities.

For China's foreign trade, new quality productivity is not just about improving the technological content of exported products, but also about the systematic changes in production factors, production tools, industrial organization, and business models. On the one hand, artificial intelligence, industrial internet, 5G, robots and digital production lines have improved the R&D, production, quality control and flexible manufacturing capabilities of enterprises, enabling enterprises to respond more quickly to the small batch, personalized and scenario needs of consumers in different countries. On the other hand, new energy, new materials, energy storage, green manufacturing, and circular economy promote the low-carbon development of export products, enabling Chinese enterprises to participate in global energy transformation and green industry chain reconstruction. In addition, cross-border e-commerce, digital marketing, overseas warehouses, and intelligent logistics have compressed the time for innovative products to enter overseas markets, allowing small and medium-sized enterprises to no longer rely solely on traditional large traders, but to have more direct contact with overseas consumers and professional buyers. As the main force of foreign trade, more and more private enterprises are no longer satisfied with simple processing, but are transforming from "product going global" to "brand going global" and "industry chain going global" through independent research and development, independent brand building, and independent channel construction. The flourishing development of new formats such as cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses, and bonded maintenance has further expanded the boundaries of China's trade.

Overall, the contribution of China's foreign trade to the world economy does not rest solely on export volume expansion, but manifests itself more in technological cooperation, import expansion, transparent rules, brand building, green development, and support for industrialization in developing countries. Looking toward the future, with the continuous release of new quality productivity, China's foreign trade will pay more attention to quality, efficiency, and innovation. With the help of high-level open platforms such as the Canton Fair, China will continue to meet global demand with high-quality supply, promote industrial upgrading through technological innovation, maintain global industrial chain stability through open cooperation, and inject more certainty and positive energy into the development of the world economy.