中国的货物贸易顺差主要来源于外商投资企业和加工贸易。在经济全球化不断深化过程中，由于分工的细化和规模经济的要求，越来越多的国际贸易由跨国公司主导，是基于价值链分工的产业内贸易或加工贸易。改革开放以来，中国吸收外商直接投资迅速增长。在相当长的时间里，外商投资企业进出口和主要由外商投资企业经营的加工贸易在中国货物贸易中的比重都保持在50%左右。外商投资企业进出口和加工贸易是中国货物贸易顺差的主要来源。2009年和2010年，外商投资企业货物贸易顺差分别为1270亿美元和1243亿美元，占同期中国货物贸易顺差总额的64.8%和68.4%，加工贸易顺差分别高达2646亿美元和3229亿美元，大大高于同期中国顺差总额。在外商投资企业进出口和加工贸易存在大量顺差的同时，国有企业进出口、一般贸易和其他贸易方式则存在逆差。

    发达国家对部分高新技术贸易设限也影响中国与一些贸易伙伴的贸易平衡。中国正处在工业化加速发展时期，对发达国家的先进设备和高新技术有着较大的进口需求。但是一些发达国家却仍然坚持旧有思维，对向中国出口高端装备和高新技术产品设置了诸多限制，导致其相关产品对中国出口增长缓慢。这在一定程度上阻碍了中国自这些国家的进口，不利于双边贸易的平衡。

 China's surplus in trade in goods mainly comes from foreign-invested enterprises and processing trade. With the spread of economic globalization as well as the refinement of the division of labor and the development of economies of scale, an increasing amount of international trade - intra-industry trade or processing trade based on value-chain specialization - is predominated by multinationals. Since the adoption of the reform and opening up policy in 1978, China has experienced rapid growth in attraction of foreign direct investment. For a fairly long period of time the import and export business of foreign-invested enterprises and processing trade mainly operated by foreign-invested enterprises accounted for about 50 percent of China's trade volume in goods, and were also the major source of the country's surplus in trade in goods. In 2009 and 2010 the surplus in trade in goods created by foreign-invested enterprises reached 127 billion U.S. dollars and 124.3 billion U.S. dollars, respectively, accounting for 64.8 percent and 68.4percent of the total surplus of China's trade in goods in the two years. Processing trade surplus of foreign-invested enterprises in the same period hit 264.6 billion U.S. dollars and 322.9 billion U.S. dollars, significantly higher than the country's total trade surplus for 2009 and 2010. While foreign-invested enterprises and processing trade enjoyed a big favorable trade balance, the import and export of China's state-owned enterprises, general trade and other forms of trade were in deficit.

The limits on certain high-tech trade set by developed countries also affect the trade balance between China and some of its trading partners. As China is currently accelerating its pace of industrialization, it needs to import advanced equipment and technologies from developed countries. Unfortunately, some developed countries, sticking to their old way of thinking, impose various restrictions on the export of high-end equipment and advanced technologies to China, resulting in slow growth in the export of these sectors. To a certain extent such limits hinder China's imports from these countries, posing an unfavorable impact on bilateral trade balance.