Guangdong Province, south China - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
1. Various of port scene

Shenzhen City, Guangdong Province, south China - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Aravind Yelery, senior fellow, Peking University Shenzhen HSBC Business School:
"If you look at the foreign trade, it has, in trillions of dollars, it is difficult to imagine that foreign trade has been replaced by the services overnight, or in one year or two years, it is a process. And that process will take even a couple of decades.”

Guangdong Province, south China - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
3. Various of port scene

Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, south China - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Daisy Huang, senior manager, Dezan Shira and Associates' Guangzhou office (starting with shot 3)(partially overlaid with shots 5-9):
"I have no doubt that foreign investors will continue to come to China. But, probably they may change their focus, so I think 20 years ago they were thinking of China as just a manufacturing hub, providing low-cost products. But now they’re seeing China with an increasing middle class, and that’s a huge market in terms of population. So you can find people looking for good quality, mid-level quality. So every new investor will find a suitable marketplace.”

++ SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE ++
Guangdong Province, south China - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
5. Truck at warehouse
6. Forklift at warehouse
7. Goods in warehouse
8. Fast motion of shopping mall
9. Various of pedestrians
++ SHOTS OVERLAYING SOUNDBITE ++

10. Rubber workshop
11. Various of port scene

Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, south China - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Daisy Huang, senior manager, Dezan Shira and Associates' Guangzhou office:
"Not all the cases are successful. They are still suffering from difficulties of sourcing from the local market, because China is still the biggest supply chain in the world. So for clothes, there are problems to find little accessories in order to finish the whole product. So they still need to source from China, and focus on production in Vietnam or Cambodia.”

Guangdong Province, south China - Recent (CGTN - No access Chinese mainland)
13. Various of robotic arms working in workshop
14. Aerial shot of cityscape

China’s economic miracle has long been attributed to its opening up and reform policies, specifically over the past 40 years. Foreign trade and manufacturing industries fueled such growth and made the country to become the world’s second largest economy.

In 2013, China bypassed the United States as the world’s largest trader of goods. It's an impressive triumph given that China’s trade volume of goods was a mere 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in 1950. By the end of 2018, that number stood at 4.6 trillion U.S. dollars. And although China has now shifted its efforts toward a service-oriented economy, foreign trade will continue to play a pivotal role.

"If you look at the foreign trade, it has, in trillions of dollars, it is difficult to imagine that foreign trade has been replaced by the services overnight, or in one year or two years, it is a process. And that process will take even a couple of decades,” said Dr. Aravind Yelery, senior fellow of Peking University Shenzhen HSBC Business School.

China’s annual trade growth remained below 10 percent between 1950 and 1977, the years of a planned economy. But following the reform and opening-up, trade grew at an average of 14.5 percent annually. China’s share in the global trade total expanded from 0.8 percent in 1978 to 11.8 percent last year.

Given recent trade tensions with the U.S, according to an expert, foreign investment will continue to stay in China, but shift their emphasis from traditional manufacturing to other fields.

"I have no doubt that foreign investors will continue to come to China. But, probably they may change their focus, so I think 20 years ago they were thinking of China as just a manufacturing hub, providing low-cost products. But now they’re seeing China with an increasing middle class, and that’s a huge market in terms of population. So you can find people looking for good quality, mid-level quality. So every new investor will find a suitable marketplace,” said Daisy Huang, senior manager of Dezan Shira and Associates' Guangzhou office.

Over the past several years, companies have relocated out of China in search of cheaper trading hubs. Regardless of this reality, however, China’s role in global supply chains and value chains remains unchallenged.

"Not all the cases are successful. They are still suffering from difficulties of sourcing from the local market, because China is still the biggest supply chain in the world. So for clothes, there are problems to find little accessories in order to finish the whole product. So they still need to source from China, and focus on production in Vietnam or Cambodia,” said Huang.

In the first half of this year, foreign trade expanded by 3.9 percent year on year, with total volumes reaching over 2.1 trillion US dollars. China’s central and western regions continue to play an ever-growing role, as their trade grew by 14 percent during the first 6 months of the year.

China has signed a total of 17 free trade agreements with 25 trading partners. And with trade between Belt and Road countries and the ASEAN bloc also witnesses year-on-year increases, it’s hard to imagine that China’s ability in the field of imports and exports will be displaced in the near future.