China's Digital Trade Development Strategy and Its Implications

In recent years, the Chinese government has announced a series of digital trade development plans and applied to join high standard trade agreements, aiming to gradually expand external openness in line with global digital trade cooperation standards. Since 2023, major government documents have repeatedly emphasized the development of digital trade and e-commerce. This trend reflects not only the growing weight of the digital economy in China’s overall economy, but also the government’s attempt to offset sluggish domestic growth momentum by accelerating digital transformation. According to data, digital sectors have grown by approximately 3.3 times since 2014, accounting for 42.8% of China’s GDP. This indicates that the digital economy has become one of the key growth drivers of the Chinese economy. With the acceleration of digital transformation and the rapid development of digital trade, frequent trade barriers of various kinds are emerging. This has increased the need for active discussions on digital economy governance and trade rules to effectively manage such barriers. As China’s influence in global digital trade continues to expand, understanding and responding to its strategies has become a pressing task for Korea and other trading partners.