China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports surged to 2.75 trillion yuan (about 398.28 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up 15.5 percent from 2.38 trillion yuan a year earlier, highlighting the sector’s growing role in driving foreign trade, Commerce Minister Wang Wentao told a press conference in Beijing on Friday.

Speaking on the sidelines of the fourth session of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), the country's supreme organ of state power, the minister outlined key developments of China's foreign trade in 2025.

"New forms and models in China's foreign trade have demonstrated robust vitality, with the scale of cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reaching 2.75 trillion yuan (about 398.28 billion U.S. dollars). Our high-end, smart, green, and low-carbon products and robots, have become a new hallmark of China's foreign trade," said Wang.

Wang stressed that China will accelerate new engines of foreign trade, pledging to drive exports of artificial intelligence and modern green power equipment while expanding digital and low-carbon trade.

"We will also focus on emerging sectors and new business models, closely monitor the development of digital trade and green trade, and promote the export momentum of artificial intelligence and modern green power equipment. We will rapidly increase exports of these products to cultivate new drivers for foreign trade growth," he said.

China will also pursue a balanced foreign trade structure by expanding imports while stabilizing exports, according to Wang.

"China is the world's second-largest economy and the second-largest import market at the same time. China boasts a continuously expanding middle-income group, indicating substantial market potential. Moreover, our market is proactively open. We will pursue balanced trade development, primarily by expanding imports while stabilizing exports, combining import expansion with export stabilization," said Wang.