The mainland reports that foreign trade rose to an all-time high just a week before Trump 2.0 kicked into high gear, practically guaranteeing steep US tariffs from day one.

The average commercial banker working in the Asia Pacific region probably feels like they are sitting through a nail-biter of a football game right now — and one that is not necessarily going their way.

The General Administration of Customs of China (GAC) released preliminary figures on Monday showing that the country’s trade surplus was nearly $1 trillion last year.

Record High

According to «Xinhua» (official state news agency, no paywall,), foreign trade was at a «record high», with the world’s second-largest economy consolidating its number one position when it came to trade.

In percentage terms, the month-on-month figures in December, however, dramatically surpassed annual growth rates. That indirectly hints at one thing – the world and the mainland are getting ready for Trump, something finews.asia inferred at the end of November.

Front-loading and Invoicing

As we indicated then, the last month of the year seems to have been chock full of goods front-loading to avoid the expected new tariffs out of the US, and very likely keeping commercial bankers extremely busy with a good deal of last-minute Christmas invoicing.

But «Xinhua» tried to move the discussion away from all that by citing GAC deputy head Wang Lingjun.

Circle of Friends

«China has become a major trading partner of more than 150 countries and regions, and the country's circle of friends in foreign trade is getting larger,» he indicated in the article.

That might well be, but as of right now, it appears to include everyone except the mainland’s largest on-again, off-again frenemy.

Pax Greenlandia

Trump’s recent dip into a rough and tumble 19th-century type of presidency, and a neo – or retro-Pax Greenlandia, Canada and Panama and Gulf of America - or some unique bundling of all three, take your pick, has taken everyone by surprise.

It is even highly unlikely that his most diehard MAGA supporters had counted on this while a check of Truth Social had not seen any comments on China’s trade figures, or at least not yet, by the president-elect.

Anyone’s Guess

Some of this may be by design, as the comments are likely to throw off technocrats in the mainland and elsewhere and keep them on the back foot for a good long while.

What we do know is that there is likely to be a flood of executive orders next week, and some of them will levy stiff tariffs on goods manufactured on the mainland. What happens after that is anyone’s guess.

The story will be updated if and when there is a comment on Truth Social by the president-elect.