China's imports surged by 51.2% year on year in January, reaching US$144.3bn. Many manufacturers will have been cramming production into January ahead of the disruption of the Chinese New Year holiday period in February, but this still constituted a strong performance. China's import bill in 2010 was up by 38.6% at US$1.39trn-more than double Japan's US$692bn of imports in 2010. In 2010 exports reached US$1.58trn, up by 31.4%, and this buoyant performance has continued, as exports in January were up by 37.6% year on year, at US$150.7bn. This caused the monthly trade surplus to fall to US$6.5bn, its lowest level since April 2010.

Despite the fall in China's overall trade surplus, trade frictions persist, especially with the US, whose trade deficit with China is widening and reached a record US$273bn in 2010, according to US government figures. The US filed two new cases against China at the World Trade Organisation in February 2011. One involves electronic-payment services, with the US accusing China of preserving the domestic monopoly of state-owned China UnionPay at the expense of US credit- and debit-card firms. The other involves anti-dumping duties and countervailing duties that China has levied on some imports of steel from the US.

The two countries were at least able to sign a raft of deals during the visit by China's president, Hu Jintao, to the US in January. These included many energy projects, such as a US$7.5bn agreement with a US aluminium producer, Alcoa, to develop smelters and clean-energy projects in China. The state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of China also acquired 80% of the Hong Kong-based Bank of East Asia's US unit in January, although the deal still has to be approved by US regulators.

On the whole, however, China's outbound investments continue to focus on resource acquisition. In January state-owned Wuhan Iron and Steel announced that it was forming a joint venture with a Canadian firm, Adriana Resources, to operate an iron ore mine in Canada. In early February a state-owned oil major, PetroChina, struck a US$5.4bn deal with Canada's Encana for a 50% share in its Canadian shale-gas projects. Yet there has also been some precedent-setting diversification.