Across the Pacific, China-US trade resurges amid shared win-win vision

This photo taken on April 30, 2025 shows trucks at a cargo dock of Qingdao Port in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. [Photo/Xinhua]

At Yantian Port in south China's Shenzhen, Lin Risheng's voice often grows hoarse over long hours of coordinating operations, sometimes exhausting two batteries in his walkie-talkie before the day is done.

The bustling port handles more than a quarter of China's exports to the United States and now dispatches an average of six U.S.-bound cargo ships each day. The intensity of Lin's workday reflects the revival of trade flows across the Pacific.

Trade between China and the United States is experiencing a powerful resurgence as tariff reductions have reignited cross-Pacific commerce, which is mutually beneficial and win-win in nature.

Following the release of a joint statement on the China-U.S. Economic and Trade Meeting in Geneva on May 12 and the implementation of mutual tariff reductions on May 14, Chinese exporters have witnessed a surge in U.S. orders in a swift, active market response to the bilateral consensus.

Just two hours after the joint statement's release, Shenzhen Sky Dragon Audio-Video Technology Co. Ltd. received multiple urgent emails from U.S. clients requesting expedited delivery.

"Our partners, including the intermediaries and U.S. end retailers, are celebrating the tariff cuts," said Xiang Congli from the company's sales department.

Businesses on both sides of the Pacific are resuming trade activities that had come to a halt due to exorbitant tariffs. U.S. companies are increasing inventory purchases while Chinese export firms are reestablishing their production of goods destined for the U.S. market.

Behind this frenzy is what many in the business sectors on both sides view as a shared expectation of mutually beneficial cooperation.

After the U.S. announced tariff hikes in early April, many American companies didn't cancel orders but instead delayed the trade process. "Now that China and the United States have agreed to lower tariffs, we've just released a series of purchase orders to our Chinese suppliers," said Tom Simon, head of design and product development at Juniper Design Group Inc.

This renewed confidence extends to manufacturers across China. In inland northern China, Shanxi Dahua Glass Industrial Co., Ltd., which exports about 40 percent of its annual production to the United States, has resumed crafting glass bread trays for U.S. department store chain Macy's.

"We had to pause and restart due to the tariff shifts. It felt like riding a roller-coaster," said deputy general manager Liang Wensheng.

On one side, Chinese factories are working to get backlogged orders and inventories moving again. On the other, U.S. buyers are continuously placing new orders in anticipation of the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons in the second half of the year.

Hu Ran, founder of a Seattle-based lighting company whose products are designed in the United States and manufactured in China, said the company is rushing to import more goods from China.

The order surge has revitalized the logistics networks between the two major economies. According to container-tracking software provider Vizion, container bookings from China to the U.S. skyrocketed nearly 300 percent immediately after the tariff reductions took effect.

Before the tariffs were lowered, some of the China-U.S. shipping routes had been suspended or redirected to South America or Europe. Bookings have resumed recently, with shipping companies reinstating former routes and deploying additional vessels to meet surging demand.

Eve Tang, a trucking business owner in Los Angeles, noted that in recent weeks, as Chinese exporters have gradually resumed shipments to the U.S., the U.S. inland transportation market has also become busy again.

"We expect this rebound to last one or two weeks, or even longer, though uncertainties for the future still remain," Tang said.

Beyond the immediate export revival, a growing number of Chinese export companies have come to share one conviction: superior product quality and innovation will continue to create market opportunities, and a solid industrial and supply chain foundation is also helpful in navigating the complex and changing international trade environment.

"The current surge in export volumes and positive market response clearly demonstrate the strong foundation and powerful competitive edge of Chinese manufacturing," said Zhang Guangyang, general manager of Shenzhen Huitong Tianxia Logistics Co., Ltd.