Eye catching details! Multiple sets of data insights into China's foreign trade, including "green content" and "intelligence content"

The economic report for April has been released. From January to April this year, the total import and export volume of goods in China increased by 14.9% year-on-year. From the perspective of exports, new market competitive advantages are gradually forming, and the export of green products and high-tech products is growing rapidly. From the perspective of imports, the attractiveness of China's large market to the world is steadily increasing. In the first four months, China's imports of goods increased by 20% year-on-year, with imports from Latin America and Africa increasing by 25.1% and 11.2% respectively.

In the complex and ever-changing external environment, China's foreign trade has accelerated. What is its driving force? I think the answer can be summarized as two keywords: "green" and "intelligent". The rapid growth in the scale of goods import and export is certainly considerable, but what is more noteworthy than the total amount is the optimization and upgrading of the structure.

Firstly, there is an increase in the "green content". Green and low-carbon products are becoming an important growth point for China's exports. From January to April, China's exports of electric vehicles increased by 68.1% year-on-year, lithium batteries increased by 43.2%, and wind turbines increased by 40.7%. The so-called "green content", in layman's terms, refers to the proportion of energy-saving, environmentally friendly, and in line with the global low-carbon trend in exported products. From photovoltaic panels to energy storage batteries, Chinese made green products are providing solutions for the global energy transition, and this green competitiveness can be called a "green gold mine". Taking Shanghai as an example, the continuous outbreak of "new three types" exports is seizing the global green transformation dividend. In April, the total export of electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products was 28.04 billion yuan, an increase of 96.3%, driving the overall export growth by 8.2 percentage points. The products were exported to more than 200 countries and regions around the world. In terms of segmentation, the export of electric vehicles increased by 71.4%, lithium batteries increased by 92.5%, and photovoltaic products surged 5.9 times. The orders and production capacity of leading enterprises have reached saturation.

Next is the improvement of 'intelligence content'. The export of high-tech products has also shown impressive performance. In the first four months, China's integrated circuit exports increased by 78.3% year-on-year, and industrial robots increased by 30%. 'Intelligent content' measures the proportion of high-tech and high value-added components in exported products, ranging from surgical robots to 3D printers, from AI computing equipment to precision components, all of which belong to this category. Let me give you the most intuitive example: At this year's Canton Fair, Chinese smart medical products attracted buyers from all over the world to place orders, especially domestic surgical robots, which caused long queues of global buyers. This fully demonstrates that China's innovative strength in the field of high-end medical equipment has been highly recognized by the international market, and is making great strides from "manufacturing" to "creation".

As pointed out by Fu Linghui, spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics, in the context of global energy transition and accelerated development of artificial intelligence, China actively expands exports of green and digital products, providing strong support for the development of the world economy.

It can be seen that "green content" and "intelligence content" together constitute the "new content" of foreign trade. This is not only the most intuitive proof of China's high-quality development in foreign trade, but also demonstrates the confidence of Chinese manufacturing - its core lies not in scale, but in quality. Guided by green and driven by intelligence, we have taken this path very solidly.