Official data from China and the U.S. have shown that their bilateral economic and trade relations are mutually beneficial and win-win in nature.
Bilateral trade in goods hit nearly 690 billion U.S. dollars in 2024. That's 275 times what it was in 1979, when the two countries first established diplomatic relations. On a daily basis, the 2024 figure gives about 1.9 billion U.S. dollars per day. In other words, just one and a half days already exceeds the entire year of 1979.
Since 2001, U.S. goods exports have grown rapidly. But to China in particular, they have skyrocketed more than three times the growth rate of U.S. exports to the rest of the world. Services trade between China and the U.S. expanded even faster. Twenty-two years on, two-way trade in services grew over seven times.
The world's two largest economies are within each other's top three trading partners. Their trade is highly complementary, as both play to their comparative strengths. In terms of the top five categories of goods in bilateral trade in 2024, it can be seen that what China mainly exports to the U.S. are things for people's daily use, while what the U.S. mainly exports to China are things used to make products for daily use.
This feature is also reflected in goods and services trade. China sells more goods, while the U.S. offers more services.
Besides, the world also needs cooperative trade on both sides of the Pacific. For example, in 2025, more than one out of every two Teslas sold worldwide rolled out of the Shanghai Gigafactory.
A survey by the U.S.-China Business Council shows nearly all of American respondents say their companies cannot remain globally competitive without China operations.
China-US economic, trade ties mutually beneficial, win-win in nature: data
