China's trade in services maintained a positive trend in the first quarter of 2026, with the total trade achieving a year-on-year increase of 2.3 percent, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce on Friday.
In the first quarter of 2026, China's total service trade volume reached over 1.8 trillion yuan (about 267.9 billion U.S. dollars). Exports of services totaled 704.52 billion yuan, up 11.2 percent, while services imports totaled 1.1 trillion yuan, down 2.6 percent.
China's trade in services during the period mainly exhibited two characteristics, said the ministry.
First, the exports of knowledge-intensive services maintained rapid growth.
Trade in knowledge-intensive services expanded by 1.6 percent year on year to 793.71 billion yuan in the first quarter, accounting for 43.5 percent of total service trade.
Exports of knowledge-intensive services reached 384.26 billion yuan, up 6.1 percent year on year. Personal cultural and entertainment services, as well as financial services, recorded particularly sharp export gains of 25.6 percent and 16.1 percent, respectively. Imports of knowledge-intensive services totaled 409.45 billion yuan, down 2.3 percent year on year.
Second, travel service exports and transport services imports grew rapidly.
In the first quarter, travel service exports jumped 32.3 percent year on year to 105.35 billion yuan in the reporting period, the highest growth among all service export sectors.
Meanwhile, imports of transport services totaled 230.2 billion yuan in the first three months, an increase of 22.8 percent, marking the fastest pace in the top five service import categories by scale.
Inbound tourism has been booming in recent years after China introduced expanded visa-free policies and conveniences such as instant tax refunding for departing visitors.
China's trade in services maintains positive growth in Q1
China's development has never been a "threat" to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular press conference in Beijing on Friday.
Some Western media and think tanks are peddling so-called "China Shock 2.0," saying that "China is achieving fast development in high-tech sectors such as renewable energy and AI and relies on foreign markets to absorb its overcapacity, thus reducing the market share of developed countries and sending more serious shock waves to the global economy compared with the era of traditional manufacture industry," while there are foreign commentators saying that the "China Shock 2.0" argument ignores the genuine innovation occurring within the Chinese industrial ecosystem and that Chinese export is the exact booster of the global economy that is needed in the turbulent period and more indispensable than ever.
Commenting on that, Lin said: "From the world's factory to the world's market and innovation powerhouse, China's development is achieved through strong performance driven by innovation and brings tangible cooperation opportunities and space to the world. High-quality Chinese products represented by the 'old three' of textiles, furniture and home appliances have stabilized the global industrial and supply chain, lowered the living cost of global consumers and eased the inflationary pressure worldwide. China's green production capacity represented by the 'new three' of electric vehicles, batteries and solar panels has bridged the gap between supply and demand in global green development and bolstered the global energy transition and low-carbon development. Moreover, China's high-tech products represented by the 'new new three' of robots, AI and innovative drugs have broken high-tech barriers and monopoly and enabled people in more countries to access affordable new technologies," said the spokesman.
"Openness and cooperation bring about progress and win-win result. China's development has never been a 'threat' to anyone but the source of growth advancing common development of all countries. What really creates 'shocks' to the world has never been the innovation of Chinese companies and efficiency of Chinese industrial capacity, but protectionist moves of setting up barriers, decoupling and severing industrial and supply chains. China will stay committed to high-standard opening up, defend the multilateral trading system and provide more certainty and new impetus to the world economy with its own steady development," said Lin.
China's development never a threat: FM spokesman
