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China Composition of Foreign Trade
The dominant pattern of foreign trade after 1949 was to import
industrial producer goods from developed countries and to pay for
them with exports of food, crude materials, and light manufactures,
especially textiles. The pattern was altered as circumstances
demanded; in the period of economic collapse following the
Great Leap Forward (1958-60; see Glossary),
food imports increased from
a negligible amount in 1959 to 39 percent of all imports in 1962.
At the same time, imports of machinery and equipment dropped from
41 percent to 5 percent of the total. From this time on, food and
live animals remained a significant, although declining, share of
imports, amounting to 14.8 percent of the total in 1980 but
dropping to 4.1 percent in 1985. The pattern also shifted over time
as China's industrial sector expanded, gradually increasing the
share of exports accounted for by manufactured goods. Manufactures
provided only 30 percent of all exports in 1959, 37.9 percent in
1975, and grew to 44.9 percent in 1985.
Important changes occurred in several specific trade categories
in the 1970s and 1980s (see
table 17, Appendix A). Imports of
textile fibers rose from 5.8 percent in 1975 to 10.7 percent in
1980 as the Chinese textile industry grew faster than domestic
cotton supplies but then fell to 4 percent in 1985 as domestic
cotton production increased. Imports of unfinished textile products
also increased from 1.3 percent in 1975 to 5.3 percent in 1985 as
a result of textile industry growth. Iron and steel accounted for
approximately 20 percent of imports in the 1970s, fell to 11.6
percent in 1980, then rose to 14.9 percent in 1985. Imports of
manufactured goods, machinery, and transportation equipment
represented 62.6 percent of total import value in 1975, fell to
53.9 percent in 1980 as imports were cut back during the "period of
readjustment" of the economy (1979-81), and rose again to 75.2
percent in 1985. On the export side, the share of foodstuffs fell
to 12.5 percent in 1985. The fastest growing export item in the
1970s was petroleum, which was first exported in 1973. Petroleum
rocketed to 12.1 percent of all exports in 1975, 22 percent in
1980, and 21.2 percent in 1985. In the 1980s textile exports grew
rapidly. Although exports of unfinished textiles remained about 14
percent of total exports, all categories of textile exports rose
from 5 percent in 1975 to 18.7 percent in 1984. In 1986 textiles
replaced petroleum as China's largest single export item.
Data as of July 1987
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