What China buys, and from whom.
China imported USD 986bn of manufactured and processed goods in 2024, down 16 per cent on 2022. These are its twenty largest source countries. 41 of them ship enough, across enough product lines, to have a lane page of their own.
Trade year 2024, compared with 2022.
The twenty countries China imports most from.
A lane page is written where the source ships USD 1bn or more a year across at least 50 product lines worth USD 1m each. For what China is best placed to make itself, see Made here: China.
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1
South Korea
Share of China's imports13 per centChangedown 11 per cent on 2022USD 127bnin 2024 -
2
Japan
Share of China's imports12 per centChangedown 15 per cent on 2022USD 115bnin 2024 -
3
Taiwan
Share of China's imports10 per centChangedown 57 per cent on 2022USD 102bnin 2024 -
4
United States
Share of China's imports9 per centChangedown 4 per cent on 2022USD 85bnin 2024 -
5
Germany
Share of China's imports9 per centChangedown 20 per cent on 2022USD 84bnin 2024 -
6
Vietnam
Share of China's imports9 per centChangeup 51 per cent on 2022USD 84bnin 2024 -
7
Malaysia
Share of China's imports4 per centChangedown 13 per cent on 2022USD 36bnin 2024 -
8
Thailand
Share of China's imports3 per centChangedown 4 per cent on 2022USD 28bnin 2024 -
9
France
Share of China's imports2 per centChangeup 6 per cent on 2022USD 21bnin 2024 -
10
Netherlands
Share of China's imports2 per centChangeup 56 per cent on 2022USD 19bnin 2024 -
11
Switzerland
Share of China's imports2 per centChangeup 24 per cent on 2022USD 17bnin 2024 -
12
Italy
Share of China's imports2 per centChangedown 9 per cent on 2022USD 15bnin 2024 -
13
Indonesia
Share of China's imports2 per centChangedown 15 per cent on 2022USD 15bnin 2024 -
14
United Kingdom
Share of China's imports1 per centChangedown 2 per cent on 2022USD 14bnin 2024 -
15
Ireland
Share of China's imports1 per centChangedown 18 per cent on 2022USD 13bnin 2024 -
16
Philippines
Share of China's imports1 per centChangedown 30 per cent on 2022USD 12bnin 2024 -
17
Russia
Share of China's imports1 per centChangeup 2 per cent on 2022USD 11bnin 2024 -
18
Sweden
Share of China's imports1 per centChangeup 8 per cent on 2022USD 7.9bnin 2024 -
19
Mexico
Share of China's imports1 per centChangedown 18 per cent on 2022USD 7.4bnin 2024 -
20
Austria
Share of China's imports1 per centChangedown 2 per cent on 2022USD 6.8bnin 2024
What crossed the border, what it was worth, and what it weighed.
Every figure on this page is from CEPII's BACI file, which reconciles what each pair of countries reports to the UN about the same shipment. Trade year 2024, compared with 2022. A line is one six-digit customs heading (HS 2022). Values are in US dollars at the border; growth is in current dollars, so part of any change is price, not volume.
Unit value. Unit values are customs values per tonne, declared at the border, not product prices. It is the value of a line divided by its declared weight, so it mixes grades, models and qualities under one heading. It is shown only where the weight is recorded, at least three source countries of USD 100k or more ship the line to China with a weight, and the figure sits within a factor of five of the middle of those sources. Outside that band it is treated as a recording problem and left out.
Share is South Korea's part of everything China imported in that line, from every source. Sources counts the countries that shipped any of it.
Scope. Manufactured and processed goods, customs chapters 16 to 96, without ores, fuels, precious metals, scrap, raw farm output and one-off capital and defence purchases: the same rule as the Made here pages.
A record of trade, not a shopping list.
What this record does not say: what sells at retail, what margin a trade leaves, how crowded the marketplaces are, or how much of a flow is re-exported through entrepots such as Hong Kong and Singapore.
A large line is not proof of an opening, and a lower unit value from another country is not proof the goods are the same. Tariffs, standards, freight, payment terms, lead times and the plain fact that a supplier is good at it are all invisible here. Nothing on this page is a forecast, a recommendation or a promise. No supplier company is named, because the record holds none.
Source: CEPII BACI, HS22, version 202601. Edition of 2026-11-03.