Data from the Ministry of Commerce reveals that in the first half of the year, China's total services trade volume reached 3.77975 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.3% year-on-year. Exports of services grew by 17.6% to 1.5047 trillion yuan, while the services trade deficit narrowed by 161.42 billion yuan year-on-year to 770.35 billion yuan. These figures reflect a profound shift in the global trade landscape, with services trade and cooperation becoming a new growth engine for world commerce. Domestically, the services sector has also improved in quality and efficiency, with its value-added output climbing 5.2% year-on-year in the first half, accounting for 59.5% of GDP and cementing its position as the nation's largest industry.

What are the emerging trends and highlights in China's services exports at present?

Travel Services Lead Export Growth

In the first half of the year, travel services exports hit 229.2 billion yuan, up 31.1% year-on-year, marking the fastest growth among the top five services export categories. Travel services encompass tourism, study abroad, and medical treatment, with all spending by inbound visitors on accommodation, dining, transport, shopping, and entertainment counted as exports. Recent policy optimizations, including visa-free entry and departure tax refunds, have kept "China Travel" and "China Shopping" vibrant. Starting July 1, a new "small-amount spot-check system" for departure tax refunds was implemented nationwide, with refund applications under 10,000 yuan now subject to random inspections rather than individual physical verification. At Shenzhen's Luohu port and airport, self-service tax refund machines supporting 13 languages have been deployed, completing refunds in as little as two to three minutes. In the first month of the new policy, Shenzhen Customs processed 13,000 departure tax refund verification cases totaling 170 million yuan in application amounts, surging 2.2 times and 94.1% year-on-year respectively. According to a Shenzhen Customs official, foreign visitors are diversifying their purchases beyond traditional souvenirs like tea and silk, with domestic digital products, apparel, and cultural creative items now highly popular.

As "China Travel" deepens, foreign tourists are venturing beyond first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to lesser-known destinations. Qunar travel platform data shows that in the first half, inbound flight bookings covered 160 domestic cities, from Heihe near the Sino-Russian border in the north to Sanya on the tropical coast in the south, and from Jiamusi in the east to Kashgar at the foot of the Kunlun Mountains in the west—20 more cities than the same period last year. Additionally, stays are lengthening. Data from Tujia Homestay indicates that foreign guests stayed in homestays across 330 Chinese cities in the first half, averaging 2.8 days per stay, up about 10% year-on-year. During the summer season, the average stay extended to 4.7 days. "Many foreign tourists now want to explore small towns, communities, and villages, getting to know hosts and local life. They're spending more time to see a more authentic and diverse China," said Hu Yang, senior vice president of Tujia Homestay.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, recently praised China on social media, writing, "China is amazing. I strongly recommend everyone go see it." His mother, Maye Musk, echoed the sentiment, noting that "every city in China has its own unique charm." Inbound tourism is increasingly blending with consumption and culture, becoming a new pillar of services trade growth.

Knowledge-Intensive Services Exports Surpass Half of Total

Another bright spot is the robust performance of knowledge-intensive services exports, which reached 805.67 billion yuan in the first half, up 12.8% year-on-year and accounting for 53.5% of total services exports. XtalPi, a pioneering company, has accelerated its global expansion, delivering intelligent, automated AI-driven drug discovery and process optimization robot laboratories to South Korea's leading pharma company JW Pharmaceutical, achieving key milestones in strategic cooperation with an innovative US biotech firm, and securing an AI drug discovery partnership worth over $400 million with an internationally renowned pharmaceutical company. "We've transformed our proprietary AI algorithms, tools, workflows, and automated experimentation capabilities into standardized, deliverable solutions for pharmaceutical and materials R&D. By serving global clients, we accumulate scarce, high-quality data and industrial implementation experience, creating a virtuous cycle of technology export, global validation, and capability iteration," explained Zhang Peiyu, Chief Scientific Officer at XtalPi. The company operates one of the world's largest "AI + chemistry robot" clusters, serving multiple top-20 global pharma companies, and collects high-quality data 50 times faster than traditional laboratories, accelerating the clinical translation of innovative drug projects.

With advancements in AI and other new technologies, Chinese enterprises are shifting from exporting technology products to exporting technology service capabilities. A notable new arena is "token export." Tokens—the fundamental units AI uses to process and generate information—can be seen as digitized outputs transformed from electricity and computing power, making them essential resources in the AI era. Chinese companies are packaging mature domestic large-model computing power into standardized interfaces that overseas clients can access directly, eliminating the need to build their own computing infrastructure. This lightweight, efficient model is gaining traction among overseas businesses. In fields like programming, video creation, interactive entertainment, and AI-native gaming, many overseas startups are adopting China's Alibaba Qwen large model as their technical foundation, with its model capabilities, cost advantages, and mature cloud service ecosystem building brand trust within the global developer community.

Cultivating More "China Services" Brands

The growth in services exports reflects the rising recognition of "China Services" brands. In recent years, Chinese service brands have accelerated their overseas expansion, introducing their underlying consumer philosophies and cultural elements to a wider audience.

The global journey of bubble tea is a microcosm of Chinese brand internationalization. Mixue Bingcheng offers acai ice cream in Brazil, multiple sugar level options in the US, and regionally inspired tropical flavors in Southeast Asia. By adopting a "global standards + regional customization" operating model that respects and integrates with local cultures, the company has brought Chinese tea drinks into local lives, opening over 4,000 stores across Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and other Southeast Asian nations. Chagee, meanwhile, focuses on space creation and scenario expansion—opening pet-friendly stores in pet-loving districts of the Philippines and designing its flagship Gangnam store in Seoul with softer fabrics and greenery to create a "tranquil green oasis" for busy urban customers.

From product innovation to experiential extension, Chinese brands are evolving beyond mere market coverage to forge emotional connections with local consumers. Traditional services are also upgrading. In April, a pilot program integrating traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) services with consumption and trade was launched across 18 regions, including Beijing, Tianjin, and Hulunbuir in Inner Mongolia. Over the next three years, these pilot areas will explore innovations in TCM cultural exchange, wellness tourism route promotion, TCM rehabilitation services, and dietary therapy, catering to the diverse needs of the international wellness market. The goal is to create new TCM service consumption scenarios and business models, ultimately establishing a portfolio of renowned international TCM service brands.

From travel services growth to knowledge-intensive services improvement, and from brand globalization to traditional service upgrades, these data points map the trajectory of China's services trade transformation. As the sector opens wider to the world, Chinese services are poised to participate in global division of labor in increasingly diverse forms, continuously unlocking new growth momentum.