China's foreign trade demonstrated robust growth in the first seven months of 2025, with total imports and exports reaching 25.7 trillion yuan (approximately $3.6 trillion), marking a 3.5% year-on-year increase. Exports rose by 7.3% year-on-year to 15.31 trillion yuan during this period. In July alone, exports increased by 7.2% year-on-year, surpassing estimates of 5.4%, while June imports rose 4.1% year-on-year, significantly outperforming expectations of a 1.0% decline. However, the June trade surplus narrowed to $98.2 billion from previous months. Over the last 12 months, China’s overall goods trade surplus reached a record $1.2 trillion, doubling the level from five years ago. The cumulative 12-month manufacturing surplus also hit a record $2 trillion, exceeding the largest surpluses historically recorded by Germany and Japan. This growth in trade surplus occurred despite ongoing tariffs. Additionally, China added nearly 13.3 million business entities in the first half of 2025, including 8.6 million individually-owned businesses and 4.3 million private enterprises. The number of new foreign-invested enterprises also rose by 4.1%, reflecting steady expansion of private and foreign-invested enterprises and indicating improving market expectations and China’s continued appeal as a global investment hub.