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In the first half of 2026, China's total export value exceeded $2.1 trillion, a new record. The growth rate was 17.6% for the period, with June recording a 27.0% year-on-year increase. Data from various indicators suggest that the Chinese economy's dependence on exports has reached its highest level in nearly three decades.
China's National Development and Reform Commission reported that in the first half of 2026, goods trade with Belt and Road partner countries reached RMB 12.97 trillion, up 14.8% year on year, accounting for 50.9% of total foreign trade. Investment cooperation expanded into high-tech and green sectors. Infrastructure projects advanced, including the Hungary-Serbia Railway's freight service launch, full construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway, and 11,186 China-Europe freight train trips, a 20.2% increase.
On July 24, Jiangsu Governor Liu Xiaotao met Geely Holding Group Chairman Li Shufu in Nanjing. Liu highlighted Jiangsu's advantages in power batteries and intelligent connected vehicle components as it prioritizes new energy vehicles as a key advanced manufacturing cluster. Li stated that Geely will expand cooperation areas and jointly build a methanol ecosystem.
The US Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974 expired on July 24, 2026, prompting replacement tariffs under Sections 301, 232, and 338. New Section 301 forced-labor tariffs impose 12.5% and 10% additional duties on 60 and 14 economies respectively, covering over 99% of US imports. A separate Section 301 investigation on Brazil resulted in a 25% tariff on most Brazilian goods. Section 232 tariffs cover steel, aluminum, and other sectors. Section 338 was first used on July 20, imposing a 50% punitive tariff on Canadian imports of cars, parts, alcohol, clothing, and furniture. The US weighted average effective tariff rate fell to 8.3% after Section 122 expiry, then rose to 11.8% after new tariffs. China's average rate rose from 25.9% to 27.2%, and Canada's from 5.3% to 7.8%.
In 2025, China's 'three new' economy generated a value added of 25.79 trillion yuan, up 6.2% year-on-year at current prices, representing 18.39% of gross domestic product. The growth rate exceeded the overall GDP growth by 2.2 percentage points, and the share rose by 0.38 percentage points from the previous year.
Five Chinese government departments have jointly launched the 2026 new energy vehicle (NEV) rural campaign, the first nationwide initiative under the 15th Five-Year Plan for agricultural modernization. The campaign features 155 models, up 31 from 2025. In 2025, sales of NEVs under the rural campaign reached 9.43 million units, about 24 times the 2020 level, spurring over 1 trillion yuan in rural consumption. The program aims to shift from simply selling cars to building an ecosystem, addressing charging infrastructure and promoting green mobility in rural areas.
On July 26, two Chinese-built 10,000-vehicle capacity ro-ro ships, the Panamanian-flagged GLOVIS Leader and the Maltese-flagged GLOVIS Nova, simultaneously berthed at Shanghai Nangang Port to load domestically produced commercial vehicles for export. The newly delivered GLOVIS Nova completed loading 7,738 new energy vehicles, setting a new record for single-voyage commercial vehicle loading at a domestic port.
Xiaomi Auto will hold a technology launch event on July 30 at 7:00 p. m. to officially introduce two SkyNomad series EREV SUVs: the seven-seat N90 Max and the five-seat N70 Max. The event will also present the Xiaomi Kunlun Technology Architecture, which includes the Kunlun Platform, Kunlun Super EREV, and Kunlun All-Domain Safety. Developed from early 2023, the architecture enables flexible interior space via a flat floor and ultra-long rails. The N70 Max, already filed with regulators, measures 4,960 mm by 1,998 mm by 1,785 mm with a 2,950 mm wheelbase. A camping version of the N90 Max features an electro-hydraulic pop-up tent.
BYD's Automotive New Technology Institute released HyWorldVLA, a foundation model for autonomous driving, achieving a PDMS score of 90.59 on the NAVSIM v1 benchmark, a leading result. The model uses a hybrid world model and VLA architecture. Ablation studies show the hybrid strategy is key; removing frame prediction drops PDMS to 87.50, and removing latent space to 89.91. In rain-fog scenarios, PDMS reached 86.87. The paper is BYD's first multimodal foundation model, developed independently. The team includes researchers from Harbin Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University, with prior work including EMoE-Planner in 2025. This reflects BYD's shift to a robotics-AI approach.
Hong Kong's Transport Department approved Baidu's Apollo Go for driverless testing on Airport Island starting July 27, 2026, removing backup operators in favor of remote monitoring. The license permits unmanned testing, not citywide commercial operations. Apollo Go has accumulated over 330 million km of autonomous driving, with 3.2 million fully driverless trips in Q1 2026, up 120% year-on-year. Baidu's Q1 2026 total revenue was RMB 32.1 billion, with core AI revenue up 49%.