China posts $1.25T trade surplus 2025

China’s General Administration of Customs reported on Jan. 14, 2026 that the country’s goods trade surplus reached $1.189 trillion in 2025, setting a record and confirming the broad thrust of a social-media claim that put the figure at about $1.25 trillion. Reuters, citing the customs release, reported the surplus as China’s first above the $1 trillion mark for a full year. The same online post also said China produced more than 70% of the world’s electric vehicles. International Energy Agency data supports that point, though the agency’s latest published figure refers to 2024 production, not 2025. ### Did China actually post a $1.25 trillion trade surplus? China’s official 2025 goods trade surplus was $1.189 trillion, according to Reuters’ report on the customs data. That is below $1.25 trillion, but close enough that social posts rounding the number upward are directionally describing the same record result. Reuters said the surplus broke through the trillion-dollar threshold for the first time in November 2025 and finished the year at $1.189 trillion. (finance.yahoo.com) The customs agency’s English statistics index also lists “China’s Total Export & Import Values, Dec 2025” and “January-Dec 2025” tables, confirming that full-year 2025 trade data has been published by the General Administration of Customs. The index page does not display the full annual totals directly, but it corroborates that the underlying official release exists. (finance.yahoo.com) ### What drove the record surplus? Reuters reported that China’s exports rose 6.6% year over year in December 2025, while imports rose 5.7%, both beating economists’ expectations. The news agency said monthly export surpluses exceeded $100 billion seven times in 2025, compared with once in 2024. Beijing has leaned on exports as the domestic property slump and weak consumer demand persisted, Reuters reported. (english.customs.gov.cn) The same report said Chinese firms shifted focus toward Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America as they adjusted to U.S. tariffs. That characterization came from Reuters’ reporting and cited economists, not from the customs tables themselves. (finance.yahoo.com) ### Is the electric-vehicle claim accurate? The International Energy Agency said in its Global EV Outlook 2025 that 17.3 million electric cars were produced worldwide in 2024 and that China produced 12.4 million of them. The agency said that left China with “more than 70%” of global electric car production in 2024. The IEA wording matters. (finance.yahoo.com) The published figure is for 2024 production, released in the agency’s 2025 outlook. I could not verify an official 2025 global EV production share showing China above 70%, but the latest IEA benchmark supports the broader point that China is the dominant manufacturing base for electric cars. ### What else in the trade data points to industrial scale? (iea.org) Reuters reported that China’s overall auto exports rose 19.4% in 2025 to 5.79 million vehicles, while pure battery electric vehicle shipments rose 48.8%. The report said China was likely to remain the world’s top auto exporter for a third straight year after overtaking Japan in 2023. (iea.org) The IEA said Chinese original equipment manufacturers accounted for more than 80% of domestic EV production in 2024 and that production by Chinese automakers outside China was less than 2% of their global output. That means most of the output counted in China’s global EV share was still being built inside China rather than in overseas plants. (finance.yahoo.com) ### Where should readers look next for official updates? The General Administration of Customs publishes monthly trade releases and statistical tables, including breakdowns in U.S. dollars and yuan, on its English statistics pages. The customs index already lists monthly releases for 2026, including February trade tables, showing where the next official updates will appear. (english.customs.gov.cn) (iea.org)