China Celebrates Surpassing US in Trade with EU for the First Time

China has welcomed its new status as the top trading partner of the European Union, another achievement of the fast-rising People's Republic whose ascent in the international order has drawn concern and criticism from the United States and, to some degree, other Western powers as well.

Speaking at a press conference Friday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying hailed the latest EU trade figures, which were released last month, as "good news for both China and the EU."

The statistics, shared with Newsweek by the EU's official European Statistical Office, showed that the volume of Chinese-EU trade from January through September of this year to be 425.5 billion euros, or roughly $516.8 billion, overtaking the U.S. and EU's 412.5 billion euros, or about $501 billion, from those same first three quarters of 2020.

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