US-China head-to-head: Explained in 11 maps and charts

US President Donald Trump will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on May 14 and 15, following weeks of delays due to the US-Israel war on Iran. The talks are expected to focus on trade relations and mark the first time a US president has visited China in nearly a decade. In recent decades, the US and China have emerged as the world’s dominant superpowers, frequently seen as locked in a contest for who sits atop the world order. A quarter of a century ago, by contrast, the US dwarfed China in most major indicators, but today, Beijing is regarded as the factory of the world and is outpacing its Western counterpart in many regards. In this head-to-head, we measure the two countries in terms of economics, military, resources and technology. Who is the world’s top trading power? Twenty-five years ago, the US was the world’s largest exporter, selling goods worth $729bn in 2001, while China ranked fourth at $266bn, about one-third of US exports, according to the World Bank’s World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS). At that time, only 30 economies traded more with China than with the US. Today, China is the world’s largest exporter, selling $3.59 trillion in goods globally compared with the US’s $1.9 trillion per year. Currently, 145 economies trade more with China than with the US. [Al Jazeera] Who is the larger exporter? In 2024, China sold $3.59 trillion in goods and bought $2.58 trillion, producing a trade surplus of more than $1 trillion – the largest of any country. …