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Source: People's Republic of China – State Council News
Beijing, January 29 (Xinhua) — By the end of 2025, trade and economic cooperation between China and Central Asia achieved a breakthrough: bilateral trade turnover reached $106.3 billion, an increase of 12 percent year-on-year. This marks the first time in history that trade turnover between China and Central Asia has exceeded $100 billion and has shown positive momentum for five consecutive years.
According to official data, this figure, amounting to $49.56 billion in 2021, doubled in just four years. Its growth rate significantly exceeded the overall growth rate of China's foreign trade over the same period. Moreover, China became the largest trading partner of all Central Asian countries for the first time, and the Central Asian region's share of China's foreign trade increased from 0.8 percent in 2021 to approximately 1.5 percent. Experts believe this marks the entry of trade and economic cooperation between China and the Central Asian countries into a new stage of high-quality development.
OPTIMIZATION AND UPDATE OF THE TRADE STRUCTURE
The structure of mutual exports and imports between China and the Central Asian countries is constantly being optimized and updated. In 2025, China's exports to the five Central Asian countries amounted to $71.2 billion, an 11 percent increase year-on-year. Significant growth was demonstrated by mechanical engineering and high-tech products, including general-purpose industrial equipment, motorcycles, mobile phones, and lithium-ion batteries. The share of the so-called "three emerging products" (electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products) is steadily expanding.
China's imports from Central Asian countries reached $35.1 billion, an increase of 14 percent. Energy and mineral resources remain the mainstays, while the range of chemicals, metal products, and non-commodity agricultural goods continues to expand. High-quality agricultural products from Central Asia, such as honey, fruit, wheat, and poultry, are increasingly entering the Chinese market.
“The sustainable and rapid development of trade cooperation between China and Central Asian countries is based on the complementarity of advantages,” said Sun Weidong, Secretary-General of the China-Central Asia format.
"This structure is a natural result of the combination of resource conditions and industry advantages of the parties. Close, mutually supportive relationships have developed between them within the production and logistics chains," he said.
According to Li Ruisi, a research fellow at the Institute of Russian, Eastern European and Central Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the optimization of the trade structure between China and Central Asia is due, among other things, to the strengthening of the complementarity of bilateral trade.
"While previously the complementarity of trade between China and Central Asian countries was reflected in the traditional energy sector, now the active development of China's new energy sector meets the urgent needs of Central Asian countries for energy transformation and diversified economic development," she commented.
DIVERSIFIED DRIVING FORCES
The expansion of trade between China and Central Asia has been made possible by diversified driving forces. In terms of investment cooperation, China is one of the main sources of investment for Central Asian countries, with total investment exceeding $50 billion. Over the past year, more than 40,000 Chinese enterprises conducted export and import transactions with Central Asian countries, and an increasing number of Chinese companies are entering the region's markets for business.
"China's investment in Central Asia is becoming increasingly diversified, expanding from traditional energy and infrastructure sectors to industrial manufacturing, transportation, green energy, and the digital economy," Sun Weidong explained.
At the same time, the implementation of the strategic China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project, as well as other transport infrastructure projects, is also accelerating. Increased connectivity will further accelerate trade and economic exchanges between China and the Central Asian countries, as well as enhance their effectiveness.
According to Li Ruisi, the construction of logistics corridors such as the China-Europe/Central Asia international railway freight routes and the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway has significantly expanded the ability of Central Asian countries to connect with the outside world, not only facilitating the entry of their goods into international markets, but also contributing to the transformation of the region into an important transportation hub connecting Asia and Europe.
Furthermore, new business models within the framework of trade and economic cooperation between China and Central Asia continue to gain momentum: bilateral trade through cross-border e-commerce continues to grow rapidly, construction of warehouse and logistics facilities continues, and cooperation in cross-border payments is actively developing. The China-Central Asia Flow Trade Cooperation Platform, launched in Nanjing (the capital of Jiangsu Province, eastern China), integrates trade interaction, industrial cooperation, and the integration of manufacturing and education, creating a new conduit for trade development between the two countries.
NEW PROSPECTS
In June 2025, the second China-Central Asia Summit was successfully held in Kazakhstan, where six priority areas for cooperation were identified: unimpeded trade, industry and investment, connectivity, green minerals, and other areas.
2025-2026 were declared the Years of High-Quality Development of China-Central Asia Cooperation, and relevant agencies signed an Action Plan for the High-Quality Joint Construction of the Belt and Road Initiative between China and Central Asian Countries.
"The CPC Central Committee's proposals for drafting the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development emphasize the need to expand high-level openness and establish a new model of mutually beneficial cooperation. The economies of Central Asian countries are demonstrating sustainable growth, placing great emphasis on digital transformation and a green future, which will create even more new opportunities for transforming and modernizing trade cooperation," Sun Weidong said, noting that the potential for trade and economic cooperation between China and the five Central Asian countries is enormous, and the prospects are very promising.
Yu Wenze, a research fellow at the Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, noted that trade turnover between China and the Central Asian countries has exceeded USD 100 billion. This does not mark the end of cooperation, but rather a new starting point for the development of economic and trade relations between the two sides toward higher quality, broader scale, and deeper levels.
According to the expert, in the next stage, both sides should, based on the China-Central Asia format, continue to properly implement the activities of the Years of High-Quality Development Cooperation between China and Central Asia, expand the depth and breadth of trade and economic cooperation, promote the establishment of higher-level institutional mechanisms, continuously optimize the trade structure, expand the import of high-quality goods from Central Asia, develop and strengthen new business models such as digital trade and green trade, promoting the improvement of the quality and effectiveness of China-Central Asia trade and economic cooperation, so as to jointly build a closer community with a shared future for China and Central Asia and make greater contributions to the prosperity and development of the regional economy as well as the recovery of the world economy. -0-
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