Chinese exports and imports picked up steam last year thanks to strong global demand, data showed Friday, but its surplus with the United States, a sensitive issue with Donald Trump, widened.

Exports expanded 7.9 percent while imports soared 15.9 percent for the year, according to the General Administration of Customs.

But even as China's trade surplus with the world fell 17 percent, shipments to the US grew 11.5 percent, causing the trade surplus to increase 10 percent to $275.8 billion.

China's surplus with the US is a hot-button issue with the Trump administration, which added new import tariffs to a number of Chinese goods last year.

"China's foreign trade continued to build on a solid foundation for steady growth, its potential being gradually unleashed," said customs spokesman Huang Songping.

"As the global economy continues to recover and the Chinese economy turns to steady and sound growth, China's foreign trade outlook in 2018 is upbeat."

Chinese economy grew 'around 6.9%' in 2017: premier
Beijing (AFP) Jan 11, 2018 - China's premier expects economic growth of around 6.9 percent for 2017, as he saw a "better than expected" outlook for the world's second-largest economy, state media said Thursday.

The authorities will release official gross domestic product figures next week but Premier Li Keqiang has given his own forecast.

"Over the past year, the Chinese economy has been on a stable and favourable development path, with its overall circumstances better than expected," Li said in a speech Wednesday at a diplomatic summit in Cambodia, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

The Chinese economy grew 6.7 percent in 2016 -- its slowest pace for more than a quarter of a century.

But the country experienced a rebound in the first half of 2017, posting 6.9 percent growth over that period, as well as an increase of 6.8 percent in the third quarter, thanks to soaring credit and investments in infrastructure.

In an effort to stem winter air pollution, authorities in recent months have conducted a massive campaign to shut down polluting factories and slash excess industrial capacity, particularly in the north.

According to analysts, the aggressive campaign might have stalled growth in the fourth quarter, due to the slowdown in industrial production.

But Li said: "The annual gross domestic product is expected to grow by around 6.9 percent."

His figure is slightly better than the 6.8 percent forecast by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top state think tank.

"The crux of why the Chinese economy was able to perform so well is that we insisted on not implementing a flood of stimuli" and instead sought to foster "new sources of growth", he said.

Beijing seeks to rebalance China's economic model towards services -- which already account for more than 50 percent of GDP -- as well as new technologies and value-added exports, moving away from heavy industries plagued by severe overcapacity and indebtedness.

The investment-heavy and export-dependent model that brought four decades of breakneck economic growth has left the country heavily in debt.

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Europe casts a wary eye on China's Silk Road plans
Paris (AFP) Jan 7, 2018
Depending on who you ask in Europe, China's colossal East-West infrastructure programme is either an opportunity or a threat - and when French President Emmanuel Macron visits next week, Beijing will be watching to see how keen he is to jump on board. Since China launched the New Silk Road plan in 2013, the hugely ambitious initiative to connect Asia and Europe by road, rail and sea has eli ... read more

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