A different story - China running colossal deficit in service sector

As trade tensions between China and the United States continue to evolve, politicians, economists and trade experts tend to focus on China's huge surplus in goods trade with the US. But looking at the trade in the service sector, the data tell a different story about the bilateral commercial relationship.

China has been a big buyer of international services. Last year, the country's service trade deficit hit a new high of 1.62 trillion yuan ($257 billion), with tourism, transportation, intellectual property right fees and insurance and elderly care services among the top areas that generated the deficit.

The US has been the biggest source of China's service trade deficit. In 2016, China had a service trade deficit of $55.7 billion with the US, nearly 40 times compared with the figure in 2006.