China's foreign trade up by 1.9% to 32.16t yuan

A crane loads containers at Erenhot Port in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region on April 11, 2020. [Photo/Xinhua]

China's foreign trade grew by 1.9 percent on a yearly basis to 32.16 trillion yuan in 2020, official data showed on Thursday.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union, the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea remained China's top five trading partners in 2020, while trade with economies related to the Belt and Road Initiative grew by 1 percent year-on-year to 9.37 trillion yuan, the General Administration of Customs said.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, China has seen a notable rebound in exports in 2020, led by strong sales of pandemic control supplies and gadgets such as laptops, according to Li Kuiwen, the administration's spokesman. As the country strives for production resumption amid containment of the pandemic, it has managed to restore export orders while stimulating domestic demand, which led to a rebound in imports, Li said.