Specifically, China’s foreign trade exhibited the following key developments.

Firstly, the scale of trade has steadily increased. From 2013 to 2021, the total value of imports and exports between China and countries along the "Belt and Road" grew from 6.46 trillion yuan to 11.6 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 7.5%. Its proportion in China’s total foreign trade volume during the same period rose from 25% to 29.7%.

Secondly, cooperation in industrial and supply chains has gotten closer. From 2013 to 2021, the share of intermediate goods in China's exports to countries along the "Belt and Road" climbed from 49.8% in 2013 to 56.2% in 2021, and the exports of auto parts, textiles and lithium electronic batteries grew by 26.7%, 14.1% and 50.4% respectively in 2021.

Thirdly, the cooperation in the fields of energy, agriculture, minerals, etc., has maintained a positive growth trend. In 2021, China’s imports of crude oil from countries along the "Belt and Road" totaled 1.18 trillion yuan,  up 44%; agricultural products imports totaled 326.55 billion yuan, up 26.1%; metal ore imports totaled 212.77 billion yuan, up 24.9%; natural gas imports totaled 185.45 billion yuan, up 38.9%.

Fourthly, participation of private enterprises has been active. In 2021, the imports and exports volume of China’s private enterprises to countries along the "Belt and Road" hit 6.21 trillion yuan, an increase of 25.6%, accounting for 53.5% overall, up 0.8 percentage points.