China has consolidated its dominant position in global trade

China is cementing its position as a world trading power, putting to rest warnings that a once-in-a-century pandemic combined with simmering tensions between the United States and China would undermine it.

Surging demand for products ranging from protective clothing to home-office technology has given China, which contained the coVID-19 outbreak months ago, a record share of the global export market while the rest of the world was on lockdown as its factories quickly resumed operations. That's a far cry from the first two months of the year, when China's exports fell 17.1%.

The results also underscore China's enduring role in manufacturing, even as simmering tensions with the United States spark talk of shifting supply chains. China's monthly exports to the United States have remained strong despite tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.

"China's export performance during this crisis has really proved its solid position as the workshop of the world," said Yao Wei, China economist at Societe Generale. "It is reliable, and China's rapid and effective containment of the epidemic has allowed its manufacturing sector to resume operations well before other countries."

The bright spot was reflected in government data for September, which showed exports rising for a fourth straight month while imports also surged. The market share of imports and exports, exports and imports in the january-July period all reached a record high, a spokesman for the Customs administration said.

"Going forward, we expect exports to continue to grow year-on-year in the coming months, but we believe headwinds are likely to strengthen due to the potential risks posed by the renewed outbreak in Europe and trade associated with deteriorating US-China relations. "We expect imports to continue to grow year-on-year, although the pace of growth may slow." "Bloomberg China economist Qu Tianshi said.

The International Monetary Fund has warned that the world economy still faces an uneven recovery until coVID-19 is brought under control. China remains the only major economy expected to grow, with 1.9 per cent this year and 8.2 per cent in 2021.

China has also lost some of its early trade advantages as its trade rivals have eased their lockdown and production has begun to resume. For now, though, optimism remains high. In dollar terms, exports were 9.9 per cent higher in September than a year earlier, while imports were up 13.2 per cent, leaving a trade surplus of $37bn. "Another outbreak among trading partners will be a challenge, but exports of products benefiting from coVID-19 related demand should continue to be sustained," said Louis Kuijs, an economist at Oxford Economics.