China’s emergence as the world’s leading exporter is one of the most significant structural shifts in the global economy over the past half century. In 1978, China’s exports accounted for less than 1% of world trade, and the country ranked outside the global top ten. By 1995, it had entered the top ten, and after its exports expanded at an exceptional 21% annual rate during the 2000s, China overtook both Germany and the U.S. to become the world’s largest exporter in 2009.

Today, China accounts for around 14% of global merchandise exports, roughly equal to the combined share of the U.S. and Germany, and continues to lead global manufacturing across a wide range of industrial and technology sectors. Few economic transformations have been as rapid or consequential. Within a single generation, China went from outside the world’s ten largest exporters in the early 1990s to the world’s leading trading nation by the late 2000s.