The number of China-Europe freight trains was 1,165 in January 2021, up 66 percent year on year, and a record 12,400 freight-train trips were made in 2020, up 50 percent from 2019, according to the China State Railway Group. In February, a new China-Europe freight train route has been launched, linking Chengdu in southwest China’s Sichuan Province with Russia’s St. Petersburg. According to Eurostat, China became the main trade partner of the European Union (EU) in 2020, with exports and imports both increasing despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Xinhua news release, March 29, 2021