According to a report in China Daily on February 12, 2026
China’s technology-driven exports are taking the world stage. In 2025, the country’s digital services — including cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and telecom solutions — propelled its trade surplus to $33 billion, more than double the previous year. The surge highlights China’s growing role as a global hub for high-value, knowledge-intensive services and signals a strategic shift toward leveraging AI and digital innovation for international trade growth.
China’s digital services sector achieved a record-breaking performance in 2025, with exports of cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and other technology-driven services propelling the country’s digital trade surplus to approximately $33 billion — more than double the previous year’s figure.
The surge comes as Chinese tech giants expand their global footprint in key knowledge-intensive areas, helping to partially offset a long-standing deficit in services trade. Telecom, computer, and information services alone contributed $31.8 billion to the surplus, up nearly 30 percent from 2024.
According to Chen Jianwei, professor at the University of International Business and Economics, “The sharp narrowing of China’s services trade deficit reflects an optimization of the current account structure and indicates that high-value services are becoming a new engine supporting the nation’s trade balance.”
China now ranks as the world’s fourth-largest provider of telecommunications, computer, and information services, with exports accounting for 9.3 percent of the global market. This growth highlights the country’s increasingly dominant role in global digital supply chains.
Key players such as Alibaba, ByteDance, and Tencent have established mature overseas operations across e-commerce, gaming, social networking, and cloud services. Tencent Cloud, for example, now serves clients from Silicon Valley to Riyadh and Singapore, offering services ranging from low-latency gaming connections to enterprise video conferencing.
Chinese cloud providers have leveraged years of experience managing high-traffic domestic platforms — including large-scale e-commerce festivals and short-video apps — to create globally scalable infrastructures. Liu Weiguang, senior vice-president of Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, noted that “high-concurrency scenarios at home have equipped us with unified global architectures and rapid cross-region deployment capabilities, giving us a competitive edge internationally.”
The strong performance of China’s digital services sector reflects a broader government strategy to prioritize AI and digital trade as key drivers of economic growth. Commerce Minister Wang Wentao emphasized that leveraging technological strengths will be central to cultivating new engines for foreign trade expansion.
Regional governments are aligning with this strategy. Guangdong province announced plans to develop leading digital trade enterprises, while Zhejiang province set annual targets for a 6 percent increase in services trade and more than 8 percent growth in digital trade.
The rapid expansion of Chinese digital services illustrates how AI, cloud computing, and other technology-driven solutions are reshaping the country’s role in the global economy, positioning China as a major exporter of high-value, knowledge-intensive services.