More than 220 countries and regions in the world have trade exchanges with Chinese. The 10 major trade partners of the Chinese mainland are: Japan, the United States, the European Union (EU), the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Republic of Korea, Taiwan Province, Australia, Russia and Canada. In world trade, China came in 32nd in 1978, 15th in 1989, 10th in 1997 and 6th in 2001. China's import and export trade volume topped the US$ 500-billion mark in 2001, to attain the grand total of US$ 509.65 billion, or 24.7 times that of 1978, 4.6 times that of 1989, and an increase of 57 percent over that of 1997. In 2002, China's total import and export volume scaled a new height, reaching US$ 620.77 billion.
