CHINA’S trade surplus surged to a record of almost $1.2 trillion (£900 billion) in 2025, the government said today, as exports to other countries made up for slowing shipments to the US under President Donald Trump’s onslaught of higher tariffs.

China’s exports rose 5.5 per cent for the whole of last year to $3.77trn (£2.8trn), customs data showed, as Chinese automakers and other manufacturers expanded into markets across the globe. Imports flatlined at $2.58trn (£1.92trn).

The 2024 trade surplus was over $992bn (£737bn).

In December, China’s exports climbed 6.6 per cent from the year before, better than economists’ estimates and higher than November’s 5.9 per cent year-on-year increase. Imports in December were up 5.7 per cent year-on-year, compared with November’s 1.9 per cent.

For the whole of 2025, China’s exports to the US fell by 20 per cent. In contrast, exports to Africa surged 26 per cent.

Those to south-east Asian countries jumped 13 per cent, to the European Union 8 per cent and to Latin America, 7 per cent.

China faces a “severe and complex” external trade environment in 2026, Wang Jun, vice-minister of China’s customs administration, told reporters in Beijing. But he said China’s “foreign trade fundamentals remain solid.”