China's services trade totaled CNY3.779 trillion in the first half of 2026, up 8.3% year-on-year. According to China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), China's services exports reached CNY1.504 trillion in the first half of the year, up 17.6% year-on-year. Services imports also grew. Notably, knowledge-intensive services accounted for more than half of the country's services exports. Imports and exports of knowledge-intensive services totaled CNY1.663 trillion, up 6.7% year-on-year, accounting for 44% of the country's total services trade, according to the MOFCOM. Knowledge-intensive services exports reached CNY805.67 billion, up 12.8% year-on-year, accounting for 53.5% of total services exports. Among them, exports of personal cultural and entertainment services and charges for the use of intellectual property recorded the fastest growth.
These figures show that China's growing technological capabilities are driving rapid growth in the services trade, Li Changan, Professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies at the University of International Business and Economics, told the Global Times. Li said that exports in high-tech fields, including technology services and intellectual property, have maintained a steady upward trajectory in recent years, reflecting rising global demand for Chinese innovation. The growth of China's services exports also reflects the transformation of the services trade from traditional labor-intensive and resource-dependent sectors toward technology-driven, knowledge-intensive and innovation-led services. Li said that “such a shift reflects the upgrading of China's foreign trade structure and its transition toward high-quality development, as the country advances the development of new quality productive forces during the 15th Five Year Plan period (2026-30).”
China ranked second globally in terms of services trade scale in 2025. China's services exports grew at an average annual rate of 14% over the past five years, with the scale in 2025 nearly doubling from that of 2020. China's services imports have also maintained steady growth, reflecting the country's expanding domestic demand and higher level of opening-up. The strong performance of both exports and imports has made the services trade one of the fastest-growing segments of China's foreign trade, the Global Times reports.
