Only a third of China’s trade surplus was with the United States, and only a third of the U.S. deficit was with China. That makes for tricky math for the president-elect.

On the eve of Donald Trump’s White House return, the Chinese government announced that last year it recorded a trade surplus of almost $1 trillion, a third of which was with the US.

Donald Trump came to Washington eight years ago vowing to rewrite U.S. trade relationships, shrink a massive goods trade deficit and rebuild America's industrial base with new tariffs. The president-elect is about to embark on an even more aggressive effort in his second term,

China’s vast exports in 2024 exceeded its imports on a scale seldom seen anywhere except during or immediately after the two world wars.

The Chinese economy concluded 2024 with a record trade surplus nearing one trillion dollars. In December alone, China's exports amounted to approximately $336 billion, and its trade surplus was $100 billion,