China announced on Wednesday the world’s largest trade surplus ever, even adjusting for inflation, as a tsunami of exports flooded markets around the world last year, the New York Times reported. China’s surplus, the value of goods and services it sold abroad versus its imports, reached $1.19 trillion, an increase of 20 percent from 2024, according to data released by the country’s General Administration of Customs. The number had already exceeded $1 trillion through November.

China’s auto exports surged 21% in 2025, driven by rising shipments of electric vehicles, while domestic demand slowed, an industry association said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. Confronted with grueling competition in an overcrowded domestic market, Chinese auto manufacturers have stepped up sales around the globe. As they expanded further into overseas markets last year, exports of new energy vehicles such as EVs and plug-in hybrids doubled from the previous year to 2.6 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

A debt advisory firm asked China Vanke Co dollar bondholders to consider calling a default on the embattled developer’s notes, based on cross-default clauses, Bloomberg News reported. PJT Partners, which has been seeking to advise Vanke’s creditors, told the bondholders that an event of default was triggered after an original grace period on one of the firm’s onshore notes expired in December. So far, no creditors have made such a call on any of Vanke’s notes and the outreach doesn’t indicate that a default is imminent.

China’s market regulator has warned several producers of polysilicon, a key material in solar panels, about monopoly risks stemming from their consolidation efforts in the oversupplied sector, Bloomberg News reported. Six companies including Tongwei Co. and GCL Technology Holdings, along with the industry association, were summoned by the State Administration for Market Regulation, local media outlet Securities Times reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources. The agency warned them not to coordinate on production capacity, sales volume and prices.

As of December 2025, new laws came into effect making Hainan a separate customs zone and consolidating a favorable regulatory environment in the southernmost province of China, EuroNews.com reported. The move contrasts with the current global trend of protectionism, as many countries move to tighten trade rules and investment controls. Hainan is now effectively the world's largest free trade port by area. Encompassing over 35,000 square kilometers, it is roughly fifty times bigger than Singapore and even slightly bigger than Belgium.

Despite the festive atmosphere of the holiday season, suppliers and creditors of US fashion accessories chain Claire’s – including about 70 from Hong Kong, mainland China and across Asia – face financial anxieties as they grapple with the uncertain prospects of recovering debts following the retailer’s recent bankruptcy filing, the South China Morning Post reported. Some have already taken legal action, though the outcome of their claims remains unclear.

German exporters should prepare for continued weakness in 2026 in their two largest markets, the United States and China, with little prospect of recovery, the BGA trade association said on Friday, Reuters reported. "We do not see a turnaround, but at best a brief respite," said BGA president Dirk Jandura. Exports to the U.S. are projected to have fallen more than 7% to just under 150 billion euros ($156 billion) in 2025, while exports to China have contracted even more sharply, dropping 10% to 81 billion euros, GTAI figures show. U.S.

China will impose an added 55% tariff on beef imports that exceed quota levels from key suppliers including Brazil, Australia and the U.S. in a move to protect its domestic cattle industry, Reuters reported. China's commerce ministry said on Wednesday the total import quota ​for 2026 for countries covered under its new "safeguard measures" is 2.7 million metric tons, roughly in line with the record 2.87 million tons it imported overall in 2024. The new ‌annual quota levels are lower than import levels for the first 11 months of 2025 for top supplier Brazil, and Australia.

Mexico's sweeping new tariffs on imports from mostly Asian countries are ​set to take effect on Thursday, in a ‌move that will largely align Mexico with the U.S. as the neighboring countries ‌place significant barriers on Chinese imports, Reuters reported. Approved by Congress in early December, the measure raises tariffs - most up to 35% - on countries without free trade agreements with Mexico, including China, India, South ⁠Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. ‌China is expected to bear the greatest impact.