During the January-May period, bilateral trade between China and Asean fell 7.1 per cent year on year. Bilateral trade between China and Asean has boomed during the past 25 years. It showed an annual growth rate of 18.5 per cent between 1991 and 2015.

China currently is Asean’s biggest trading partner, while Asean is China's third biggest partner. Asean is a major destination for Chinese companies.

China plans to join hands with Asean and accelerate bilateral and multilateral trade negotiations and create a favorable trade and investment environment so as to increase the China-Asean trade volume to a trillion dollars and two-way investment to 150 billion dollars by 2020. China will help Asean countries with infrastructure development, industrialization and industrial upgrading so as to level up the connectivity and promote trade and personnel exchanges in this region.

China and Asean combined is economically the most dynamic region in the world whose growth rate is three to four times higher than that of developed countries such as the US, Canada, EU, and Australia.