The country maintained its position as the world's second-largest importer for the 15th consecutive year in 2023, accounting for 10.6 percent of total global imports last year, according to a recent report on China's imports authored by Wei Hao, associate dean of Beijing Normal University Business School, and his colleagues.

　　The ratio of China's trade surplus to GDP has decreased from 7.53 percent in 2007 to 4.59 percent in 2023, and imports expanded faster than exports, Tian Zhihong, a professor at China Agricultural University, shared his data with Xinhua.

　　China's share of global imports has also steadily increased, rising from 3.8 percent in 2001 to 10.58 percent in 2022, the largest growth among major countries and regions, according to Wei's report.

　　From 2001 to 2023, China's imports from France ballooned from 4.1 billion dollars to 37.3 billion dollars, and its imports from Germany rocketed from 13.8 billion dollars to 106.2 billion dollars, the report said.

　　Agricultural imports serve as a prime example. China's agricultural imports soared 14.1 times from 2001 to 2023, cementing the country's status as the top global importer since 2011, according to WTO data cited in a report from the National School of Food Security Strategy (NSFSS) at Renmin University of China.

　　“China has become a major driving force for global agricultural development in the past 20 years, especially in promoting the agricultural development of emerging economies with its vast market,“ Prof. Cheng Guoqiang, dean of the NSFSS, who participated in the WTO negotiations, told Xinhua.

　　On the country's imports from the United States, soybeans are definitely a heavyweight. China has a large demand for soybeans, while self-sufficiency is hard to achieve. It has strived to improve planting technology, and at the same time, continued to expand imports, Tian said.