Data for the first half of 2025 shows that the United States and the EU remain key trading partners for China. However, new and emerging markets for Beijing indicate that the Asian power is pursuing its diversification efforts at the fastest possible pace, writes Béla Akos Revesz, an analyst at Makronom, for Mandiner.
Revesz points to an infographic created by Visual Capitalist that clearly shows the shift in direction, especially in North Africa, ASEAN countries, and Hong Kong.
Chinese exports to the United States fell 10.7 percent year-over-year to $215.6 billion, due to the trade war and America’s diversification of supply chains. However, a lot of Chinese goods are now arriving in America through parallel trade, that is, with the help of countries like Mexico or Vietnam, where Chinese goods are “repackaged” or assembled into finished products and then sold across the border.
What is most disconcerting, the analyst notes, is the growth of exports to the European Union.
President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has pushed for the EU to move away from dependence on China, to diversify and de-risk its supply chains. However, data shows a 6.9 percent jump in EU purchases of products from China, worth $267.5 billion.
Only ASEAN countries imported more than this, increasing the value of their purchases by 13 percent and $322.5 billion. The largest percentage increase was seen in Africa, with Chinese exports to African countries rising to $103 billion, or 21.4 percent more than in the first half of last year.
What is clear, notes Revesz, is that in preparation for continued cuts by the U.S. and greater diversification by the EU, China is doing everything it can to expand its dominance elsewhere.
