Officials pledge to fast-track upgraded free trade pact

Chinese government officials said on Tuesday that China will work with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to bring the upgraded free trade agreement into force at an early date, as the two sides seek to inject new impetus into regional and global economic growth.

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing ahead of the 23rd China-ASEAN Expo, scheduled for Sept. 17-21 in Nanning, capital of South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Yan Dong, vice-minister of commerce, said China will step up policy support to help businesses tap opportunities created by the upgraded agreement.

"The two sides will promote coordinated implementation of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area 3.0 Upgrade Protocol and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP, to take bilateral economic and trade ties to a higher level," Yan said.

The upgrade protocol was signed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in October 2025, marking a further step in deepening economic and trade cooperation between China and ASEAN. The upgrade marks the latest stage in the evolution of the China-ASEAN free trade area, which was initiated in 2002 and fully implemented as Version 1.0 in 2010. A subsequent Version 2.0 protocol was signed in 2015 and came into full effect in 2019.

The 23rd China-ASEAN Expo will focus on free trade area development and regional high-quality growth, while showcasing new achievements in China-ASEAN economic and trade cooperation, an official from China's Ministry of Commerce said at a press briefing on Tuesday. The event carries the theme "CAFTA (China-ASEAN Free Trade Area) 3.0 Opportunities, Better Life" and will run from Sept. 17 to 21.

Trade figures highlight deepening ties

Supported by their complementary industrial structures, China-ASEAN trade reached $744.41 billion in the first seven months of 2026, up 24.7 percent year-on-year and accounting for 21.8 percent of China's total foreign trade, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.

According to the official, China and ASEAN bilateral trade surpassed the $1-trillion mark for the first time in 2025, reaching $1.05 trillion, the CCTV News reported. The figure marked a year-on-year increase of 7.4 percent, underscoring the continued expansion of economic ties between China and the regional bloc. China has remained ASEAN's largest trading partner for 17 consecutive years, while ASEAN has been China's largest trading partner for six consecutive years.

The year 2026 marks the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the China-ASEAN Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

These latest figures indicate that trade and economic ties between the two massive economies have continued to advance in step with the formal signing of the CAFTA 3.0 Upgrade Protocol, a Chinese expert said.

Business leaders cite strong demand

With the global economic environment becoming more complex and the risk of supply chain fragmentation rising, Wang Liping, director-general of the Commerce Ministry's department of Asian affairs, said maintaining resilient and stable industrial and supply chains has become increasingly important to global economic growth. "China and ASEAN will deepen investment cooperation in emerging areas including the digital economy, green development and the blue economy," she said.

Businesses are already seeing the benefits. Fujian Yanan Power Group, a manufacturer of generator sets and hydrogen fuel cells based in Ningde, Fujian province, saw its exports to ASEAN markets exceed 20 million yuan ($2.98 million) between January and August, up more than 6 percent year-on-year, according to Fuzhou Customs.

Zhou Wenhao, the company's assistant president, said strong demand for diesel and gas generator sets, fueled by growing infrastructure investment and rising power demand across the region, has supported export growth to Southeast Asia.

At Dongguan Port in Guangdong province, container-sized modular housing units were being loaded onto vessels bound for ASEAN markets including Indonesia and Vietnam in late August. Wang Bo, foreign trade director at Shanghai Azonal Trade Co, said the units can be assembled directly upon arrival at their destinations.

In the first seven months of this year, Shatian Customs, a branch of Huangpu Customs in Guangdong province, supervised 23 shipments of modular housing exports worth 548 million yuan, up 730 percent from a year earlier, with most destined for Southeast Asian countries.

Infrastructure and investment milestones

At the press conference, officials highlighted steady progress in investment cooperation and major infrastructure projects, including the Malaysia East Coast Rail Link (over 94 percent complete), the Jakarta-Bandung High-Speed Railway (over 15 million passenger trips), and the China-Laos 500-kilovolt power interconnection project (lately launched).

Cumulative bilateral investment between China and ASEAN, along with Chinese enterprises' completed engineering contract revenue in ASEAN, had both exceeded $515 billion by July 2026.

China-ASEAN partnership has become a model of mutually beneficial cooperation between economies at different stages of development, with market forces and government guidance working in tandem, Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

As global trade uncertainty continues to rise, China and ASEAN are working to strengthen their institutional framework to support continued expansion, with the upgraded free trade agreement seen as a key priority.