The top target of Donald Trump’s tariff war has delivered a blow to his claims that it will remake their economy by declaring a record trade surplus.
China said that its trade surplus surged to $1.19 trillion last year, a 20 percent jump from 2024. The total had already passed $1 trillion by November, highlighting how little impact Trump’s tariff war had on China’s export machine.
The surplus continued to widen in December, reaching $114.14 billion in that month alone, the third-highest monthly figure on record, fueled by booming sales to Europe, Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
Although tariffs reduced China’s trade surplus with the U.S. last year, Chinese factories ramped up sales through other markets, with electronics and electrical equipment making up the largest portion of exports.
China’s exports to the U.S. dropped 20 percent in 2025, while shipments to Africa jumped 26 percent, surged 13 percent to Southeast Asia, 8 percent to the European Union, and 7 percent to Latin America.
The news came on the heels of Trump’s threat to slap 25 percent tariffs on countries that trade with Iran. China is Iran’s largest trading partner.
“Effective immediately, any Country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a Tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday.
If implemented, the move would push tariffs on Chinese imports to a minimum of 45 percent, more than double the current 20 percent rate.
In response, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, threatened to retaliate, saying that Beijing would “take all necessary measures to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.”
“China’s position on tariffs is very clear: there are no winners in a tariff war, and China will firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests,” Beijing’s foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a press conference.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Trump rattled global markets last April when he unveiled sweeping tariffs affecting goods from dozens of countries. China faced some of the steepest tariffs as the top exporter to the U.S.
In November, a New York Times analysis found that Beijing was offsetting its drop in exports to the U.S. with “breathtaking speed,” by dramatically ramping up exports across the globe.
It should not come as a surprise to the U.S. that China “is able to find markets outside of the advanced economies,” Mary Lovely, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told the newspaper.
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