Shenzhen Takes the Crown! Top 100 Cities in China's Foreign Trade Revealed

The regional distribution pattern of city rankings aligns with the overall economic gradient of China.

In the Top 100 cities with comprehensive foreign trade competitiveness, the eastern region continues to dominate significantly, with 60 cities making the list in 2022, an increase of 1 from 2021. Notably, Guangdong's Shenzhen, Shanghai, and Jiangsu's Suzhou have consistently held the top three positions for two consecutive years. The eastern cities maintain their stronghold by occupying the top 10 positions. In the central region, 26 cities are included, showing an increase of 3 from 2021, with Hubei's Wuhan ranking highest at 14th place, an improvement of 3 positions. The western and northeastern regions have 10 and 4 cities listed, respectively, each decreasing by 2 from 2021. Xi'an in Shaanxi holds the highest position in the west at 20th place, while Dalian in Liaoning ranks 42nd.

Consensus building and quality innovation become the main driving forces for enhancing city foreign trade competitiveness.

As the new development philosophy gains popularity, the concept of "heroism based on scale" and "success or failure based on growth rate" is gradually fading. In 2022, among the top 20 cities with the highest foreign trade import and export values in China, 14 cities are included in the Top 20 of comprehensive foreign trade competitiveness, a decrease of 2 from 2021. The supportive role of scale and volume in boosting city foreign trade competitiveness has somewhat weakened. At the same time, the average growth rate of import and export values for the Top 100 cities with comprehensive foreign trade competitiveness is 7.1%, lower than the overall national foreign trade growth rate during the same period, indicating a shift from the previous trend of "the strong getting stronger" in city foreign trade.

Point-to-surface approach: Regional centralization and clustering of cities' layout become clearer.

With the rapid progress of China's new urbanization process, industries, populations, and various production factors are accelerating their convergence in advantageous spaces, bringing about profound changes in the spatial structure of economic development. The report from the 20th Party Congress outlines significant deployments to promote regional coordinated development, emphasizing the construction of a coordinated development pattern for cities of different sizes based on urban agglomerations and metropolitan areas. In the field of foreign trade, in recent years, activities such as industrial synergy, resource sharing, and functional linkage around city clusters have become more active. Some city clusters, under the guidance of central cities, continuously optimize regional resource allocation, promote integrated development, and drive the Top 100 cities in China's foreign trade competitiveness list to exhibit characteristics of "strong centralization" and "clustering."

Unleashing potential: Support for city foreign trade development increases in factors such as open platforms and ports.

In recent years, China has continuously constructed and improved a high-quality modern circulation system, making factor circulation more convenient and smooth. The influence of traditional material resources such as energy, minerals, and basic materials on the development of city foreign trade has weakened. The competitive focus of cities participating in international trade is gradually shifting towards "soft elements" such as policies, funds, ports, and talents. In the foreign trade competitiveness index system, "soft elements" of foreign trade are concentrated in the potential competitiveness module. This includes indicators such as the number of open ports and open platforms, the number of newly registered foreign trade enterprises, and the actual utilization of foreign capital. In 2022, 13 cities simultaneously entered the Top 20 in both potential foreign trade competitiveness and comprehensive competitiveness.