In the first half of this year, China's digitally deliverable services trade hit a new record high for the same period in history, according to a report released on Thursday.
The "China Digital Trade Development Report 2026," published by the Ministry of Commerce, showed that imports and exports of digitally deliverable services trade reached 1.7 trillion yuan (about 254 billion U.S. dollars) in the first six months of the year, up 6.7 percent year on year.
The report also provided full-year figures for 2025. China's imports and exports of digitally deliverable services totaled 3.1 trillion yuan last year, an increase of 6.6 percent year on year, while cross-border e-commerce imports and exports stood at 2.84 trillion yuan, up 4.8 percent year on year.
The report noted that the booming development of digital trade has injected fresh momentum into China's domestic economic growth, and that the country's steadily expanding digitally deliverable services trade has become an important contributor to global digital trade growth.
China's digitally deliverable services trade hits record high in H1: report
A Chinese defense spokesman on Thursday accused the Philippines of making provocations in the name of security cooperation in the South China sea.
At a press conference in Beijing, Jiang Bin, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, responded to a media query about the Philippines using its co-chairmanship of the ASEAN Defense Ministers' Meeting-Plus Experts' Working Group (EWG) on Maritime Security to rally certain countries for a joint military exercise near China's Huangyan Dao.
The Philippines is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
"Taking advantage of its role as co-chair of the EWG on Maritime Security, the Philippine side has put aside the principle of consensus through consultation and co-opted relevant countries into conducting a joint military exercise in areas near China's Huangyan Dao. The exercise is in fact a provocation and propaganda in the name of security cooperation. It will only disrupt regional peace and stability and runs counter to the regional consensus of jointly preserving peace and promoting development," said Jiang.
Philippines makes provocations in name of security cooperation: Chinese military spokesman
