{"id":478009,"date":"2025-12-29T16:29:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T16:29:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/478009\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T16:29:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T16:29:13","slug":"china-has-logged-a-us1-trillion-trade-surplus-where-is-all-that-money-going","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/478009\/","title":{"rendered":"China has logged a US$1 trillion trade surplus. Where is all that money going?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Recent data on China\u2019s external accounts presents a conundrum: while the country\u2019s trade surplus has broken records, <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/economic-indicators\/article\/3335551\/chinas-exports-rebound-november-after-trade-war-thaw?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">surpassing the US$1 trillion benchmark<\/a> in the first 11 months of the year, growth in its official foreign exchange reserves has lagged. This seeming paradox prompts a question \u2013 where did the money go?<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Analysts said the gap reflects how much of the surplus has flowed back overseas through asset investment, largely made by private-sector players, leaving China\u2019s external accounts more balanced than the headline trade figures suggest.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Han Shen Lin, capstone director for the quantitative finance master&#8217;s programme at New York University Shanghai, said the trade surplus \u201cdoesn\u2019t automatically mean a rise in official reserves any more,\u201d as a significant portion is being recycled through the private sector.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing is a shift from state-led reserve accumulation to market-led capital outflows,\u201d Lin said, noting Chinese firms are paying down foreign debt, building overseas assets or keeping earnings offshore.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cThe money hasn\u2019t disappeared; it\u2019s just no longer sitting on the People\u2019s Bank of China\u2019s balance sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The role of the private sector has grown in parallel with the overseas footprints of Chinese firms in recent years, as narrowing domestic profit margins and rising production capacity push <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/economy\/china-economy\/series\/3334991\/china-inc-goes-global?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"noopener\">more companies to \u201cgo global\u201d<\/a> in search of new markets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Recent data on China\u2019s external accounts presents a conundrum: while the country\u2019s trade surplus has broken records, surpassing&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":478010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[216549,13214,9710,64,40872,74,79,440,216548,170,216546,216547,22702,8374,216550,67,132,68,88384,209501],"class_list":{"0":"post-478009","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-alicia-garcia-herrero","9":"tag-asia-pacific","10":"tag-beijing","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-central-financial-and-economic-affairs-commission","13":"tag-china","14":"tag-economy","15":"tag-europe","16":"tag-han-shen-lin","17":"tag-japan","18":"tag-natixis","19":"tag-new-york-university-shanghai","20":"tag-peoples-bank-of-china","21":"tag-southeast-asia","22":"tag-state-administration-of-foreign-exchange","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-us-treasury","27":"tag-yu-yongding"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115803806994535233","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}