China still exports far more goods than the US
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CHART 1 • China still exports far more goods than the US
China’s economy has obvious problems: property stress, weak confidence and an ageing population. This chart, however, cuts against a lazy conclusion. Despite these issues, China is not easy to displace as the world’s factory. Furthermore, this domestic weakness has not erased industrial scale.
Vizmaya’s UN Comtrade and customs comparison puts China’s goods exports far ahead of the US in 2025. That gap is not just about cheap labour, but reflects supplier depth, tooling, logistics, engineering capacity and the habit of making things at scale.
Decoupling is therefore, much harder than the politics suggests. Tariffs can shift some orders, but they cannot instantly create another China. This is goods exports, not a full measure of economic power or domestic health, but it is the right place to start any serious argument about supply chains.
Source: Vizmaya, UN Comtrade and GACC
Countries are often discussed as if they can be wished into or out of dependence. Supply chains are more stubborn. They are habits, ports, tooling, engineers, contracts and accumulated trust.
That stubbornness runs through the goods each side still buys, China’s EV market, manufacturing history and US trade data. This is less a victory lap for China than a warning against pretending industrial depth can be rebuilt by announcement.
