Oriental Daily News, Hong Kong’s number one newspaper in circulation since 1976, recently reported on data released by China’s General Administration of Customs. The data show that trade volume between China and Russia in the first quarter of this year fell by 6.6 percent year-over-year to US$53.2 billion.
China’s exports to Russia were US$22.725 billion in the first quarter down 6.3 percent, year-over-year. And China imported US$30.488 billion from Russia, down 6.7 percent, year-over-year. Russia’s deputy foreign minister said that the U.S. tariffs towards China will not affect the trade relations between Russia and China, and the two countries will continue to cooperate. Chinese Russian Ambassador Zhang Hanyang said last month that, regardless of how the international situation changes, the historical logic of China-Russia friendship will not change, and the power will not weaken.
The “double-decrease” situation on both import and export sides breaks the myth of rapid growth of China-Russia trade in the past three years with an average annual growth of more than 30 percent. One cause of the sharp trade decrease was a drop in Russian exports of both energy and agricultural products. The decline in Russian oil exports was linked to lower global oil prices, and the decline in agricultural exports is likely due to efforts by Beijing to diversify agricultural suppliers. Another cause of the weakened trade was that the U.S. made efforts to crack down on Chinese companies that conduct business with Russia via “secondary sanctions”, forcing Chinese banks to tighten settlements with Russia.
Sources:
(1) Oriental Daily, April 15, 2025
https://tinyurl.com/ydx68wxy
(2) Sina, April 15, 2025
https://www.163.com/dy/article/JT6T76JK05560OTI.html