China exported more than 220 billion face masks in 2020, the equivalent of nearly 40 per person outside of the country.
Demand for protective equipment has skyrocketed after the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic which began in China in late 2019.
The surge in exports helped the country become the only major economy in the world to grow last year after its Communist leaders covered up the crisis in its early stages and quickly contained the virus.
China exported more than 220 billion face masks in 2020, the equivalent of nearly 40 per person outside of the country. Pictured: factory workers produce masks in Hunan province
China’s GDP grew by 2.3 per cent in 2020, making it the only major economy likely to record economic growth in the year of the pandemic
China shifted billions of dollars’ worth of the coverings which have become essential items around the world.
On Friday, vice-minister for commerce Qian Keming told reporters that in addition to masks, China exported 2.3billion pieces of protective gear and one billion test kits last year, ‘making an important contribution to the global fight against the epidemic’.
The mask shipments alone were worth 340 billion yuan (£38.5billion), a customs official said this month.
‘(The volume) is equivalent to providing nearly 40 masks to each person in the world outside China,’ said customs spokesman Li Kuiwen.
China shifted billions of dollars’ worth of the coverings which have become essential items around the world. Pictured: mask-wearers in Milan
Demand for protective equipment has skyrocketed after the breakout of the coronavirus pandemic
China, where Covid-19 first emerged in late 2019, was also the first country to bounce back after imposing strict lockdowns and virus control measures.
Its economy grew by 2.3 per cent in 2020, official figures revealed this month, making it the only major economy to grow at all last year.
The projected recessions include GDP drops of 3.7 per cent in the US, 7.5 per cent in the eurozone and 11.2 per cent in the UK.
Despite the virus originating in Wuhan, the Chinese Communist party managed to quickly control the virus while the rest of the world was being ravaged.
This has since allowed Chinese companies to exploit the global economic standstill.
The mask shipments alone were worth 340 billion yuan (£38.5billion), a customs official said earlier this month
But on Friday, commerce ministry official Chu Shijia added that China still faced a ‘severe and complex’ environment in foreign trade and investment this year.
China’s 2020 figures show a marked slowdown from the 6 per cent growth in 2019, which was already the lowest in decades amid trade tensions and weak domestic demand.
The full-year growth of 2.3 per cent was the Chinese economy’s worst performance since a 1.6 per cent contraction in 1976, the year that Mao Zedong died.
By contrast, the world economy was projected by the OECD to shrink by 4.2 per cent in 2020, with larger slumps in Britain, Italy, France and India among others.
The country’s growth comes despite global criticism over China’s handling of the virus with many alleging a cover-up.
Several countries have found evidence that the virus had already reached them in the final months of 2019.
But it was not until December 31, 2019 that the WHO’s China office was informed of a mystery pneumonia which had sickened 44 people in Wuhan.
Later, the WHO was informed that at least one patient in Wuhan – a major transport hub – had been showing symptoms as early as December 8.
China has always denied allegations of a cover-up, reacting angrily to calls for an international investigation into the origins of the virus.
This month it allowed a team of WHO experts to enter the country on a politically sensitive mission but they were not expected to probe the theory that the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Numerous reports have detailed how China withheld key details about the virus in its early stages, including from the WHO which has praised China in public.
A young doctor, Li Wenliang, was reprimanded by police after trying to raise the alarm about the disease – and later died of it.