Date：2025-11-19Views：0
As the most dynamic trade sector at present, trade in services has seen a continuous increase in its proportion within world trade, increasingly becoming the main driving force for global economic growth. China attaches great importance to trade in services, viewing the opening up of the service sector and the development of trade in services as crucial avenues for integrating into economic globalization and participating in international competition and cooperation. In recent years, through institutional innovation to expand the opening up of the service sector and summarizing and expanding the experience of pilot projects for opening up, China has successively launched three rounds of pilot projects for the innovative development of trade in services, exploring the construction of national demonstration zones for the innovative development of trade in services. It is worth mentioning that on September 29, 2013, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone was established, managing special administrative measures for foreign investment for the first time in the form of a negative list. At that time, China's economic classification was divided into 1,069 categories, and the first negative list of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone covered 190 of them, accounting for 17.8%. The second negative list was launched on July 1, 2014, reducing the items from 190 to 139, a decrease of more than 25%. The negative list launched in 2021 has reduced the relevant provisions to 27 items. From 190 items in 2013 to 27 items in 2021, the special administrative measures involving the service sector have been significantly reduced. For example, in the field of market research, foreign investment access restrictions have been abolished except for radio and television listening and viewing surveys, which must be controlled by Chinese parties; in the field of social surveys, the prohibition on foreign investment has been adjusted to require a Chinese share ratio of not less than 67%, and the legal representative must be of Chinese nationality, fully reflecting the improvement in the precision and inclusiveness of negative list management for foreign investment access. In 2021, China launched the first negative list in the field of cross-border trade in services - "Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for Cross-Border Trade in Services in Hainan Free Trade Port (2021 Edition)", breaking through the existing management model of trade in services, aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules, and making high-level opening arrangements in professional services, transportation services, financial services, and other fields. It clearly lists 70 special administrative measures for 11 categories of cross-border service providers, achieving a major breakthrough in the management model of trade in services and enabling rapid development of trade in services.
Meanwhile, over the past 10 years, China's import and export of service trade have maintained rapid growth, with an average annual growth rate of 6.1%, 3.1% higher than the global growth rate. The number of countries and regions with service trade exchanges has increased to over 200, among which service trade exchanges with countries along the "Belt and Road" have increased by 33%, those with the BRICS countries by 52%, and those with ASEAN countries by 27%. In 2021, the added value of China's service industry accounted for 53.3% of GDP, and the total import and export of services reached 5.3 trillion yuan, ranking second in the world for eight consecutive years. Among them, the export of knowledge-intensive services increased by 18%, demonstrating strong competitiveness. It can be said that the vigorous development of China's service trade is complementary and mutually beneficial to the continuous acceleration of institutional opening-up.
It is noteworthy that, with the acceleration of digitalization, digital trade has become an important engine for the growth of service trade. In 2019, more than half of global service trade had been digitized, and the global trade competition landscape centered on digital trade is being reshaped, with the digitization of service trade emerging as a major trend. China boasts the world's largest number of internet users and the richest data resources, with outstanding capabilities in digital technology innovation. The scale of digital service trade has been increasing year by year, reaching RMB 2.33 trillion in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 14.4%. China's digital service trade volume has grown from USD 200 billion in 2015 to USD 294.76 billion in 2020. Cross-border e-commerce, a major form of digital trade, has driven the continuous expansion of overseas markets for China's industries or brands in the digital economy sector. Studies have shown that digital trade has played a significant role in enhancing the technological level of Chinese export products, transitioning from "Made in China" to "Chinese Brands". Digital trade, supported by the Internet, breaks the constraints of transaction time and space, inherently possessing openness. As a new form of trade that adapts to information technology applications and remote interaction modes, it demands higher levels of openness. As the operational rules and management issues of digital trade begin to be incorporated into the overall framework of global economic and trade relations governance, nearly a hundred regional and bilateral trade agreements now include digital trade or e-commerce rules. High-standard digital trade rules have become an important driver of China's institutional opening-up.
