Faced with the challenges brought by weak external demand, China's foreign trade resilience continues to emerge. According to data released by the General Administration of Customs on the 7th, the total import and export value of goods in China in the first five months of this year was 16.77 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.7%. Among them, the monthly imports and exports in May reached 3.45 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.5%, and the monthly imports and exports remained positive for four consecutive months.

This is a scene from the 133 r Canton Fair captured on April 15th. Photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter Liu Dawei

Specifically, in the first five months, exports reached 9.62 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%; imports reached 7.15 trillion yuan, an increase of 0.5%; In May, exports reached 1.95 trillion yuan, a decrease of 0.8%; imports reached 1.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.3%.

Lu Daliang, Director of the Statistics and Analysis Department of the General Administration of Customs, stated that since the beginning of this year, China's economic development has shown a rebound and positive trend, providing strong support for the stable growth of foreign trade. In addition, a series of policies and measures have been successively introduced to stabilize the scale and optimize the structure of foreign trade, helping foreign trade operators actively respond to the challenges brought by weak foreign demand, effectively capturing market opportunities, and promoting China's foreign trade to continue to maintain positive growth.

This is a drone photo taken on March 13th at the Taicang Port Terminal in Jiangsu. Photographed by Li Bo, a journalist from Xinhua News Agency

From the perspective of trade methods, general trade, as the main mode of China's foreign trade, has increased the proportion of imports and exports. In the first five months, China's general trade imports and exports reached 11 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7%, accounting for 65.6% of China's total foreign trade value, an increase of 1.4 percentage points compared to the same period last year.

From the perspective of foreign trade entities, private enterprises continue to maintain their position as the largest operating entity in China's foreign trade. In the first five months, there were 439000 private enterprises with import and export operations in China, an increase of 8.8% year-on-year, with a total import and export of 8.86 trillion yuan, an increase of 13.1%, accounting for 52.8% of China's total foreign trade value, an increase of 3.9 percentage points compared to the same period last year.

Trucks exported to Central Asian countries are waiting to leave the Baktu Port in Xinjiang (photographed on February 4th). Photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Huhu

From the perspective of trade partners, with the continuous interconnection of regional economic exchanges, China's imports and exports to other members of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) have grown steadily. In the first five months, RCEP accounted for over 30% of China's foreign trade. Among them, ASEAN continues to be China's largest trading partner, with imports and exports reaching 2.59 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.9%. The EU is China's second largest trading partner, with imports and exports reaching 2.28 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.6%. The United States and Japan are the third and fourth largest trading partners, with a year-on-year decrease of 5.5% and 3.5% respectively.

On March 23, the Trans-Eurasia Logistics X left Xi'an International Port Station for Selyatino, Russia. Photographed by Li Yibo, a journalist from Xinhua News Agency

Over the same period, China's imports and exports to countries along the Belt and Road" totaled 5.78 trillion yuan, up 13.2% year on year, including 44% to Kazakhstan and the other five Central Asian countries.

On April 11, in the workshop of Zhejiang Besheng Green Energy Technology Co., Ltd. located in Zhili Town, Wuxing District, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, the automated assembly line was stepping up production of photovoltaic modules exported to Europe. Photographed by Xinhua News Agency reporter Xu Yu

In addition, driven by the rapid growth of exports of "new three types" products, China's exports of mechanical and electrical products increased by 9.5% year-on-year in the first five months, accounting for 57.9% of the total export value. The export of labor-intensive products reached 1.65 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.4%.