China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have seen their economic and trade ties growing stronger, with the latter remained the largest trade partner of China for consecutive five years as of 2024.
According to the data from the General Administration of Customs, China's trade value with ASEAN countries reached 1.03 trillion yuan in the first two months of 2025, marking a 4 percent year-on-year increase, and accounting for 15.8 percent of China's total import-export volume during the period.
"In the first two months, the growth rate of China's imports and exports with ASEAN countries is 5.2 percent higher than average, and had been increasing for 12 consecutive months. As China welcomes anniversaries of establishing diplomatic ties with many ASEAN countries, and version 3.0 of China-ASEAN Free Trade Area (FTA) has been developing rapidly, the bilateral trade between China and ASEAN countries is entering a new stage," said Lyu Daliang, head of the Statistics and Analysis Department under China's General Administration of Customs.
A highlight of China-ASEAN trade is the robust performance of the Guangxi Region in south China, the frontier of China's opening up to ASEAN countries. From January to February, Guangxi saw a record-high bilateral trade value, with imports and exports hitting 62.85 billion yuan (about 8.7 billion U.S. dollars), a 14.3 percent year-on-year jump.
The total foreign trade value of Guangxi also recorded the highest, surpassing 125 billion yuan (about 17.3 billion U.S. dollars), up 21.5 percent compared to last year. Specifically, the import and export volume of the manufacturing sector saw a major surge of 73 percent, with home appliances and lithium batteries among the best-performing industries, reaching 81.5 percent and 112.4 percent increases, respectively.
ASEAN remains China's largest trade partner for five consecutive years
ASEAN remains China's largest trade partner for five consecutive years
