China insists large export numbers aren't about global takeover ambitions

China says it’s not trying to dominate global trade, and officials want the world to stop acting like it is. Vice Finance Minister Liao Min, speaking Friday near Durban, South Africa, said most of the country’s production is made to meet domestic demand, not to flood international markets.

“When there’s demand from abroad, China exports accordingly,” Liao told Bloomberg, brushing off claims of aggressive market control. “This does not mean, however, that China is trying to dominate every market.”

Liao was attending a G-20 finance meeting, where global economic uncertainty was front and center. He said China’s steady growth is offering some stability to the rest of the world at a time when markets are shaken by tariffs and weak forecasts.

GDP rose 5.3% in the first half of the year, and he called that growth “in line with expectations.”

Exports push surplus, but not strategy

Even though exports helped drive recent quarterly growth, Liao insisted that’s not part of a grand plan to take over global trade. China logged a $586 billion trade surplus in the first half of the year, partly because exporters rushed to ship goods ahead of new tariffs. Liao said some of that momentum might cool, but economists still expect the annual surplus to pass $1 trillion.

He pointed to long-term data showing that domestic consumption is doing the heavy lifting. In the last four years, household and local demand accounted for 86.4% of GDP growth, with consumption alone making up 56.2%. That’s up from the 2016–2020 average by over eight percentage points.

Liao said, “We are steadily advancing toward an economic model driven by consumption, while at the same time maintaining a relatively balanced foreign trade.”

Some officials in the U.S. aren’t buying that message. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently told Congress that China’s manufacturing-goods surplus is almost 2% of global GDP, about twice what Japan had at its 1990s peak. He claimed Beijing was “trying to export their way out” of its real estate crisis, and labeled China “the most imbalanced economy in the history of the world.”

Beijing boosts local spending to shift model

Liao didn’t respond directly to Bessent’s remarks. But he pushed back hard on the idea that high production means overcapacity. “Just because China holds a large market share in certain products doesn’t mean it should be accused of overcapacity,” he said. “Such claims are oversimplifications and fail to capture the full reality.”

To support that shift toward consumption, the Chinese government has gone all in on stimulus. They doubled the issuance of ultra-long sovereign bonds, pumping 300 billion yuan ($41.8 billion) into the economy.

Most of that was spent in the first half of the year, encouraging purchases of electronics, home goods, and cars. Liao said this move supported sales worth nearly ten times the subsidy amount.

At the same time, Beijing plans to expand service industries and develop the green and digital sectors to push more people into better-paying jobs. That, they hope, will increase buying power across the country. Liao also said they’re boosting social safety nets like pensions to keep consumer spending stable over time.

Critics still point to China’s current-account surplus, which stood at 2.2% last year. But Liao insisted that figure is reasonable by global standards and doesn’t signal overreach. “The share of its shipments worldwide is not excessively high,” he said.

The timing of all this matters. Trump’s trade war continues to push uncertainty into the system, and China is scrambling to keep internal demand strong. The country’s efforts to lock in economic transformation are happening just as global forecasts are getting slashed.

There’s also the politics. Liao has been a major player in trade negotiations with the U.S., helping broker two separate truces, one in Geneva and another in London, earlier this year. His comments came just before a fresh round of talks between both countries is expected.

At the end of the G-20 meeting, the group released a joint statement calling for more global coordination. Liao supported it and said it shows countries can still find common ground. “It sends a strong message that countries are committed to better communication, closer coordination and working together in a spirit of unity,” he told Bloomberg.

He added that China still supports multilateralism and wants the G-20 to play a stronger role during this shaky moment in the global economy. “At a time when the global economy is facing so much uncertainty and so many challenges, the G-20 should play an even greater role,” Liao said.

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