In the first seven months of 2026, China's total import and export volume reached 30.13 trillion yuan, marking a 17.3% year-on-year increase. Exports grew by 14%, while imports surged by 22%, surpassing export growth by 8 percentage points and making a significantly greater contribution to foreign trade expansion.

China has long been a major global exporter, with its manufactured goods sold worldwide. In recent years, the advantages of China's massive domestic market have become increasingly evident, as large-scale imports of overseas products have made the country's import performance particularly impressive. What has driven this shift, and how will China's expanding market reshape global trade dynamics?

On August 27, 2026, the first batch of exhibits for the ninth China International Import Expo (CIIE) was loaded onto a ship in Hamburg, Germany, bound for Shanghai. Among them was a turn-mill composite machining center from an Austrian tooling technology company, marking its debut in Asia. To date, over 2,000 enterprises from more than 100 countries and regions have signed up to participate in November's expo. The annual CIIE continues to open China's market to the world.

Zhou Hanmin, convener of the CIIE Shanghai Conference Advisory Group, noted that as globalization enters a difficult phase, the expo aims to demonstrate consistency to the world: certainty in openness and certainty in expanding imports. This year's expo has specifically upgraded its Asia-Africa product zones, precisely targeting the development needs of Global South countries and helping enterprises from African nations with diplomatic ties leverage the benefits of zero-tariff policies.

China has implemented zero tariffs for 63 countries, with its overall tariff level reduced to 7.3%, among the lowest globally. Since May 1 of this year, China has fully implemented zero tariffs for 53 African countries with diplomatic relations. These tariff cuts have lowered the cost of African exports to China, allowing an increasing number of high-quality, uniquely African products to enter China's vast market.

Yin Zhengping, a researcher at the Institute of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Commerce, highlighted that products such as cocoa from Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire, coffee and avocados from Kenya, and citrus and wine from South Africa have seen substantial tariff reductions and now enjoy zero-tariff treatment in China. China's proactive policy of expanding openness serves as the policy foundation for rapid import growth.

In the first half of this year, the total trade volume between China and Africa reached an all-time high for the same period, with imports from Africa totaling 193.8 billion yuan in May and June alone, a 23.5% year-on-year increase. Ethiopia, the birthplace of coffee, has seen its coffee competitiveness rise rapidly, with annual sales in China growing at an impressive 27%. China has now become Ethiopia's third-largest coffee export market.

Near the CIIE venue, the Hongqiao International Coffee Port serves as a year-round platform capitalizing on the expo's spillover effects. It has become both a haven for coffee enthusiasts and fertile ground for coffee trade entrepreneurs. Wang Zhengxiang is one such entrepreneur. In 2021, he brought Ethiopian coffee beans to the fourth CIIE, where a modest nine-square-meter booth connected him with upstream and downstream trading partners, propelling his coffee business onto a fast-growth track.

Expanding imports has not only brought a diverse array of specialty products but also created new development opportunities. At the Hongqiao International Coffee Port, numerous foreign entrepreneurs are pursuing their dreams. A young Ethiopian man is currently livestreaming at the broadcast studio to promote his hometown's coffee. On Shanghai's Wukang Road, a street of less than 1,200 meters, more than ten coffee shops operate. Shanghai now boasts over 10,000 cafes, with the highest per-capita annual coffee consumption in the country. In boutique cafes along the streets, premium African coffee beans with floral and fruity notes are a classic choice at pour-over counters.

More and more global products, including specialty coffee beans, are entering the Chinese market through zero-tariff channels, offering domestic consumers a wider range of choices. As domestic consumption continues to upgrade, China, as a "super buyer," brings vast market opportunities to countries worldwide. China's agricultural and food product imports now originate from more than 150 countries and regions.

Guangxi serves as the gateway for ASEAN fruits entering China. In the first seven months of this year, 492,000 tons of durian were imported through Youyiguan Port in Pingxiang, Guangxi, with a value of 14.59 billion yuan, both growing by approximately 40% year-on-year. Li Qianchang, a local from Pingxiang, joined a company engaged in ASEAN fruit trade in 2020. A board at his office entrance records the number of containers of imported durian his company has handled this year. He noted that Thailand's durian production has increased significantly, with imports in the first seven months nearly matching the total for all of last year.

China's import growth is driven not only by consumption upgrades but also strongly by industrial upgrading. In the first seven months of this year, China imported 5.31 trillion yuan worth of mechanical and electrical products, a 29.7% increase, accounting for 41.9% of total imports. Imports of electronic components grew 45.6% and metal ores increased 22.6% in the first half of the year. These "industrial staples" flow into domestic production lines through large-scale imports.

In factory workshops, these materials undergo processing and re-manufacturing to enhance product value, leveraging the conversion efficiency of China's complete industrial system. Yin Zhengping noted that China's overall stable and improving economic development serves as the internal driver for import growth. This year, the national economy has remained stable, manufacturing has shown steady improvement, and investment in high-tech industries has increased, all providing strong support for the expansion of raw material and intermediate goods imports.

Among imported industrial categories, integrated circuits have seen particularly notable growth. In the first seven months of this year, integrated circuit imports through Xi'an's aviation port reached 45.85 billion yuan, a 441.6% year-on-year increase. Across the entire city of Xi'an, integrated circuit imports totaled 79.04 billion yuan, up 115.4%. This growth pattern mirrors national trends, with many products seeing significant import increases closely tied to the rapid development of the artificial intelligence industry.

He Zhaopeng, deputy dean and professor at the School of Economics of Central University of Finance and Economics, noted that the "15th Five-Year Plan" outline calls for advancing the construction of a Digital China and enhancing digital-intelligent development levels. Market entities are responding proactively, with rapid AI development driving significant increases in imports of automatic data processing equipment and components, electronic components, and computer and communication technology, all growing at rates above 47%. This indicates that China's economic structure is continuously upgrading and its digital-intelligent development level keeps rising.

In the first seven months of this year, Xi'an's total imports reached 116.17 billion yuan, up 40.8% year-on-year, with imports through its aviation port totaling 56.2 billion yuan, a 160% increase. Mechanical and electrical products emerged as the fastest-growing category. In Guangxi, imports from ASEAN reached 62.84 billion yuan in the first seven months, a 19% year-on-year increase, with mechanical and electrical products growing 23.8% and metal ores and minerals rising 3.4%. A supply chain service enterprise in Nanning is leveraging its geographic advantage adjacent to ASEAN and favorable open-policy benefits to maintain steady growth in bulk commodity imports from the region.

Beyond domestic consumption upgrades and strong manufacturing demand, another key reason for import growth lies in convenient transportation conditions and smooth logistics networks. The inland city of Xi'an, though not coastal or border-adjacent, has opened import and export channels through railways. Reports indicate that the Xi'an assembly center for China-Europe freight trains has launched 18 international routes covering major regions of Asia and Europe, with key indicators such as operational volume, cargo volume, and laden container ratio ranking among the top nationwide for eight consecutive years.

Through this "steel artery" spanning the Eurasian continent, Xi'an has effectively brought a "seaport" to its doorstep. Bulk commodities like grain now flow smoothly across borders through this Eurasian corridor. Leveraging the railway's advantages of high capacity and low weather sensitivity, wheat, mung beans, and other grains from Central Asia arrive directly at Xi'an Port via freight trains, making China-Europe rail services an important transportation carrier for grain imports.

Import growth relies not only on efficient logistics systems but also on improved customs clearance efficiency and reduced clearance times. For fresh products with short shelf lives such as durian and aquatic products, faster clearance reduces cargo losses while ensuring fresher products reach consumers' tables in a timely manner. For bulk commodities like mineral ores and high-value-added components, reducing time spent at ports effectively lowers costs for domestic enterprises.

China remains committed to expanding its opening-up, embracing both "selling globally" and "buying globally" to promote coordinated development of imports and exports. This year, China has hosted approximately 40 "Sharing the Mega Market · Export to China" events, creating channels for trading partners to expand quality product exports to China and achieve mutual benefit and win-win outcomes.

Yin Zhengping emphasized that China is demonstrating through concrete actions that its door of openness will only grow wider. China does not deliberately pursue a trade surplus and will continue to promote balanced import-export development. He Zhaopeng added that China is both a world factory and a world market, expressing confidence and capability in maintaining current favorable momentum and working with all countries to make the cake of common development bigger.

China is the world's largest manufacturing country and the second-largest consumer market. Since 2009, China has maintained its position as the world's second-largest import market for 17 consecutive years. Despite the current complex and volatile global trade environment, with the IMF projecting global trade growth to slow to 3.5% in 2026, China remains willing to share opportunities and pursue development with the world, transforming its super-sized market into a shared global market and injecting new momentum into global economic development.