China-ASEAN cooperation gains momentum through shared opportunities

"The number of durian containers in the first seven months has almost matched the total for all of last year," said Li Qianchang, native of Pingxiang, a border county in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, who has been trading fruits since joining his current company in 2020.

For Li, the growing trade between China and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) can be read from a tally board hanging at the entrance to his office.

The trend is part of a broader expansion in China-ASEAN cooperation.

In the first seven months of this year, Guangxi's imports from ASEAN reached 62.84 billion yuan ($9.4 billion), up 19% year on year.

Among major import categories, imports of electromechanical products rose 23.8%, while those of metal ores and concentrates increased 3.4%.

Across the region, China-ASEAN ties are deepening, with trade serving as a key driver of broader cooperation in investment, infrastructure, people-to-people exchanges and regional supply chains.

The two sides have been each other's largest trading partners for several consecutive years, with bilateral trade surpassing $1 trillion for the first time in 2025.

Stronger ties fuel trade growth This year marks the fifth anniversary of the China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Officials from China and ASEAN member states gathered in Beijing on Tuesday to commemorate the milestone.

"The partnership had proven its value over the past five years by bringing tangible benefits to more than 2 billion people and contributing to peace, stability and prosperity in the region," said ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn at the event.

From the establishment of dialogue relations in 1991 to the elevation of ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership in 2021, China and ASEAN have developed close and multifaceted links.

China has made significant advances in areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), electric vehicles and renewable energy, where it has strong capabilities, said Destarata Mustafa, counsellor for political affairs at the Indonesian Embassy in Beijing.

"We hope to expand cooperation with China in these fields." Vietnamese Ambassador to China Pham Thanh Binh, whose country currently chairs the ASEAN Committee in Beijing, said bilateral trade rose 25.6% year on year in the first eight months of 2026 to more than $862 billion.

The figures, he said, demonstrate the depth of ties between the two sides and their shared development opportunities, calling for the comprehensive strategic partnership to continue producing tangible benefits for businesses and people.