The single largest increase to the trade surplus this year came from autos, with the sector up US$22 billion in the first 10 months of 2025 compared with the same period last year. Photo by Chinatopix via AP/Postmedia files

In a year dominated by United States President Donald Trump’s tariff war , a blizzard of tit-for-tat levies and stop-start trade negotiations, China’s US$1 trillion surplus has made clear that it remains an unstoppable trade juggernaut.

While the country’s trade surplus with the U.S. is more than US$100 billion lower so far this year compared with last year’s total, it has increased in a host of other destinations from south-east Asia to Europe. The result is a historic global goods surplus that reached US$1.08 trillion in November, driven by US$3.41 trillion

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