A glimpse of Ningbo Zhoushan Port Photo: Courtesy of Ningbo Zhoushan Port

China's trade with the US exceeded 4 trillion yuan ($573 billion), accounting for 8.8 percent of China's total import-export value in 2025, official data released on Wednesday showed.

Amid the turbulence in bilateral trade caused by US tariffs and restriction policies last year, the latest figures still underscored the resilience and intertwined nature of bilateral trade relations, Chinese analysts said, noting that maintaining stable, healthy, and sustainable bilateral trade relations benefits not only both countries but also the global economy.

In 2025, China's trade with the US reached 4.01 trillion yuan ($574.66 billion), accounting for 8.8 percent of China's total trade by value, Lü Daliang, spokesperson for the General Administration of Customs (GAC), said at a press conference on Wednesday.

He noted that US data showed US trade with China totaled $373.64 billion in the first 10 months of 2025, representing 7.8 percent of total US trade.

Based on goods trade statistics from both sides, China is the third-largest export destination and the third-largest import source for the US, while the US is China's largest export destination country and third-largest import source, Lü said. 

In 2024, bilateral trade in goods stood at $688.3 billion. 

The essence of China-US economic and trade relations is mutually beneficial and win-win cooperation. Maintaining the stable, healthy, and sustainable development of these relations is beneficial not only to both countries but also to the world, Lü said at the press conference. 

Both China and the US should work together to implement the consensus reached by the two leaders, continuously narrow the list of issues through dialogue and cooperation, expand the list of cooperation, and make China-US economic and trade relations a stabilizer and propeller for the overall bilateral relationship, Lü added.

The figures reveal a resilient economic connection between China and the US, highlighting the highly complementary nature of their trade relations, Gao Lingyun, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Li Yong, an executive council member of the China Society for WTO Studies, noted that the data confirms the ongoing significance of China-US trade within the overall trade structure of both countries despite a year-on-year decline in trade value due to disruptions from US tariffs. 

He said that the interdependence stems from the distinct comparative advantages each country holds across multiple sectors, reinforcing the mutual benefits of stable bilateral trade.

After hard-won progress was achieved through multiple rounds of negotiations last year, bilateral trade has remained relatively stable, Chinese experts said. 

The latest round of China-US economic and trade talks, which concluded on October 26 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, once again demonstrated that dialogue and cooperation remain the correct way forward for the two countries.

However, uncertainties persist due to the geopolitical landscape, Gao said, expressing hope that the US would take concrete steps to implement the leaders' consensus, rather than employing tactics that harm bilateral trade.

This data for China-US trade comes amid record-high figures for China's foreign trade in goods in 2025, which grew 3.8 percent year-on-year to 45.47 trillion yuan. The growth underscores the sector's resilience and vitality as China retains its position as the world's largest trading nation in goods.

Data from the GAC showed that in 2025, China's imports reached 18.48 trillion yuan, a record high. It was the 17th consecutive year that China was the world's second-largest import market.

"Under the complex situation where the international environment undergoes profound changes and the global economic and trade order faces major challenges, the achievements in China's foreign trade sector are extraordinary and hard-won," Wang Jun, deputy head of the GAC, said at a press conference on Wednesday on the release of the data.