China’s exports rose by 35.4 percent in 2004, totaling US$593.4 billion and favoring machinery and equipment, textiles and clothing, footwear, toys, and mineral fuels as the major commodities.
The primary trading partners were the United States (21.1 percent), Hong Kong (trading as a separate economy, mostly for re-export purposes, 17 percent), Japan (12.4 percent), and South Korea (4.7 percent).
One of the burgeoning exports, toys (both unsophisticated and high-tech, of which China provides about 75 percent of the total worldwide), also has a growing domestic market (US$6 billion a year).
The 2004 total reflected the rising trend in exports during the previous seven years, increasing from US$151 billion in 1996 and reaching US$249.2 billion by 2000.
