Foreign trade of China's western region up 10.4 pct in H1

China

Foreign trade of China's western region up 10.4 pct in H1

2025-07-21 12:49 Last Updated At：16:57

The foreign trade volume of China's western region reached a record high of 2.12 trillion yuan (about 295.4 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 10.4 percent, according to figures from the General Administration of Customs.

China's western region has been playing a vital role in boosting connectivity with international trade partners.

Comprising 12 provincial-level regions including Shaanxi, Chongqing, Sichuan, Yunnan, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Xizang Autonomous Region, western China covers two-thirds of the country's land area and is home to over a quarter of its population.

Xizang's trading partners had expanded to 110 countries and regions by the end of June. Its total imports and exports to countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative reached 3.27 billion yuan, an increase of 18.1 percent year on year.

With the logistics advantages brought by the Chengdu Tianfu International Airport and Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, the total imports and exports of Sichuan topped all provinces and regions in western China, reaching 519.09 trillion yuan in the first six months of this year.

In Shaanxi's city of Xi'an, the China-Europe freight trains are connecting the Xi'an International Port Station to more than 320 cities in Asia and Europe.

The import and export value through the China-Laos Railway connecting Yunnan's Kunming and Vientiane, the capital of Laos exceeded 12.8 billion yuan from January to June, covering more than 3,000 categories of traded products.

Officials of the General Administration of Customs said more efforts will be made to facilitate the foreign trade in the western part of the country.

"We have greatly expanded the foreign trade hinterland in the western region by improving the level of open platforms, promoting trade facilitation, and supporting the implementation of new foreign trade formats and models. In the next step, the customs will continue to increase support for the construction of open platforms such as ports and comprehensive bonded areas in the western region to help enterprises expand their international markets and foster new and greater momentum for foreign trade," said Chen Zongwang, deputy director of the department of general operation of the General Administration of Customs.

US cannot legitimize operation against Venezuela: Chinese scholar

The United States cannot legitimize an operation that attacked Venezuela and captured its president, a Chinese scholar said Sunday.

On Saturday, the United States launched a large-scale strike on Venezuela, during which Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were 'captured and flown out of Venezuela' according to a post by U.S. President Donald Trump on his Truth Social account.

Teng Jianqun, director of the Center for Diplomatic Studies at Hunan Normal University, said in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) that the aim of this operation is to take full control of Venezuela’s natural resources.

"I don't think the United States can legitimize this operation to take custody of the president of Venezuela. And also I don't think the United States can legitimize its any action in taking the oil reserves of that country. This is actually a very dangerous game played by the Trump administration. And of course, the United States would like to take full control of that country and to take full control of the natural resources, especially the large reserve of oil in Venezuela," said Teng.

Teng said Venezuela is not an isolated case but a common practice by the United States. The United States launched an invasion of Panama on Dec. 20, 1989, which continued until January 1990, with the stated objective of capturing Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega on charges of drug trafficking and organized crime.

"We still remember the so-called sentence of the former president of Panama in the late 1980s. And this time, the president of Venezuela will be under some judicial condition (judicial proceedings) for the so-called drug trafficking and some other crimes. So I think this is not a single case for the Venezuela country, but also this is actually a practice by the United States -- to use force, to use so-called justice under law against any leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean waters," he said.