China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) has released the “2025 Report on China’s Development of Digital Trade” as a comprehensive review of how digital trade is evolving globally and in China, and how policy is being translated into concrete local practice. The report was officially introduced during the Global Digital Trade Expo (Hangzhou) in late September 2025 and is positioned as a reference for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and practitioners navigating a rapidly changing digital trade environment.
The report opens by framing digital trade as an increasingly central component of modern trade—characterised by data as a key production factor, digitally deliverable services as a core area, and digital ordering and delivery as defining features. It explicitly links this shift to China’s policy direction, highlighting the August 2024 “Opinions on Reform and Innovative Development of Digital Trade” as a foundational document that sets objectives and priority tasks for the next phase of development.
Structure and what it covers:
- Overview section: A snapshot of global and China digital trade developments since 2024, including policy measures that aim to support reform and innovation in digital trade.
- Practice section: Case-based approaches from representative provinces and cities, organised around themes such as building digital technology trade ecosystems, advancing innovation in digital services trade, promoting compliant and efficient cross-border data flows, and expanding international openness and cooperation.
- Special topics: Focused chapters on China’s cross-border e-commerce and on public digital services for intellectual property, reflecting how “enabling infrastructure” (platforms, governance tools, and public service capacity) is becoming part of the competitiveness conversation.
The report also provides a global benchmark using WTO statistics on digitally delivered services. It notes that global digitally delivered services exports reached about USD 4.78 trillion in 2024, growing 9.8% year-on-year, and accounting for roughly 54.5% of global services exports. It further breaks down where growth is concentrated (for example, computer services and other business services) and where trade leadership sits, presenting digitally delivered services as a key barometer for digital trade performance.
For readers building strategy or content, the value of the report is less in any single headline and more in how it connects three layers: (1) global trend signals, (2) China’s policy direction and “institutional opening” agenda, and (3) on-the-ground experimentation by local governments—especially in areas such as digital services, cross-border e-commerce, and the governance conditions needed for safe, scalable cross-border data use.
