Russia-China Trade Collapsed By Almost 20%

• 8.09.2025, 14:58

The Kremlin is nervous.

The decline in Russia-China trade, which began in 2025 for the first time in three years of war, continues to accelerate.

China's purchases of goods from Russia collapsed by 17.8% year-on-year in August, Reuters reported, citing Chinese customs data. Shipments of Chinese goods to the Russian market fell by 16.4% year-on-year - twice as much as in July, when the decline was 8.6%.

Accumulated total for the first eight months of this year, Russian-Chinese trade turnover sagged by almost 9% to 1.03 trillion yuan, or $145 billion. Russian exports to China fell by 8.8%, while Chinese exports to Russia fell by 8.2%.

Detailed data from Chinese customs (for 8 months they are not yet available) show that China has reduced purchases of almost all types of Russian raw materials, experts from the Gaidar Institute wrote: oil - by 11%, oil products - by 28%, LNG - by 13%, wood and coal - by 10% (for January-May).

The decline in turnover with Russia's main trading partner has caused concern in the Kremlin, sources told Reuters earlier. "China does not behave like an ally," complained one of the agency's interlocutors close to the government. - Sometimes it lets us down and stops payments, sometimes it profits from us, and sometimes it just robs us. There is nothing allied about it.