Tariffs and a trade war, but China defies the odds live from the UK.

This is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service.

I'm Stuart Clarkson. Good morning.

China's announced record export numbers and the biggest ever trade surplus in global history,

$1.2 trillion.

So the impact of tariffs from the US seems to have pushed Beijing to do its business elsewhere with positive results.

The BBC's Nick Marsh is with us on Marketplace to delve into this a bit more now.

Hello Nick.

Hi.

So a record surplus despite President Trump's attempts to stop some trade with China.

How have they managed this?

This basically shows that even though trade with China. How have they managed this? This basically shows that

even though trade with the United States did take a bit of a hit, a 20% drop or so, China more

than made up for it with a massive increase in exports to the rest of the world, in particular

places such as Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America as well.

Clearly, that's not great news for domestic workers and manufacturers in those places,

but it is a vindication of China's long-held belief that, yes, the American consumer market is very big, very important market,

but it's not the only one. And on the evidence of these figures, China has plenty of willing customers around the world.

The customs authority in China pointed out a rise in the export of technologies such as solar panels,

electric vehicles, you know, green technology basically, artificial intelligence technology

where China is really rapidly making huge strides in that area and also robotics.

And I guess President Trump will be

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