China's services trade maintains brisk growth amid push for new drivers, opening up

China's trade in services maintained brisk growth in the first nine months of 2026 as the country moved to foster new drivers of foreign trade and promote high-standard opening up.

Services imports and exports totaled 5.77 trillion yuan (about $858.89 billion) from January to September, up 8.5% year on year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Exports rose 14.8% while imports grew 4.8%, leaving a services trade deficit of 1.23 trillion yuan.

This performance was buoyed by a surge in transport services, which led all categories with a 33.9% jump. Knowledge-intensive services, which accounted for 43.9% of total services trade, also expanded steadily by 7.4%.

These figures underscore a broader shift in China's trade structure as the country moves toward consumption and innovation.

Experts say the development of services trade is key to building new competitive advantages in international trade, fostering a more open economy, and supporting high-quality development.

Beijing is stepping up support. The 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) calls for vigorously developing services trade, while the 2026 government work report vows to improve national standards for the service sector and cultivate the "China Services" brand.

In April, the Ministry of Commerce launched a plan to develop national demonstration zones for the services trade in 16 cities, including Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai, as well as Hainan Province, with the goal of cultivating key services industry clusters and significantly improving liberalization by 2035.

China's growing services trade has global significance. Li Bin, deputy head of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, said China's services imports reached more than $620 billion in 2025, covering travel, intellectual property, transport and business services, making China the world's second-largest importer of services.

This steady growth in services imports has strongly supported the development of global services trade and effectively promoted employment and growth in other economies, Li noted.