China’s Apparel Imports From Other Asian Countries On the Rise

China has been slowly shedding its image as the so-called “World’s Factory,” with Western brands working toward sourcing diversification over the past decade.

And in the wake of the United States’ tariff regime, which has impacted supply chains across the globe, China may be ready to claim a new title: the most prominent potential export-market for other Asian economies.

A recently released study from Dr. Sheng Lu, professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware, asks, “Are China’s apparel imports a growing opportunity for Asian developing countries?”

Published in the Journal of Chinese Economic and Foreign Trade Studies, “The key message of this study is that maybe in the current tariff war-trade war context, China can also leverage its market to become a more important trading partner for Asian countries,” Lu told Sourcing Journal.

Lu’s research revealed some surprising trends. While China is known as the biggest apparel exporter on earth, its apparel imports have been quietly growing, more than tripling from 2010 to 2024, according to UNComtrade data released last year.

The clothing China is taking in from Asian developing countries (ADCs) like Vietnam, Bangladesh and Cambodia has grown “particularly fast,” the study showed, demonstrating a compound annual growth rate that topped 15 percent over that 14-year period.

ADCs like Vietnam and Bangladesh have become critical apparel production locales in recent years, driven in part by Western brands’ desires to diversify their sourcing portfolios. But over the past year, these countries are also “facing trade restrictions in the U.S. market” in the form of tariffs, Lu explained. As a result, they are “trying to diversify their export market” opportunities, further fueling sales to China.

Foreign direct investment—much of it from China itself—along with government support has allowed their operations to scale and mature. According to Lu, which some countries were once limited in the breadth and variety of products they could produce, some countries’ offerings, like Vietnam’s, are “as competitive, as broad, as diversified as those locally made in China.”  

Lu’s thinking is reflected by U.S. trade data, which shows that China’s apparel export market share has fallen precipitously to below 10 percent. Vietnam is now the No. 1 supplier to the U.S. market, and Bangladesh is quickly gaining on China, once the undisputed, preeminent apparel sourcing hub not just for the U.S., but the world.

There are also shifting dynamics in China’s apparel export strategy.

“Compared to product locally made in China, products sourced from 82 other countries are priced lower,” Lu said. As such, China’s role in the apparel supply chain is shifting as the cost of producing in the country has risen. Lu believes its apparel industry sees more opportunity today in “leveling up” from a producer of low-cost goods. It’s now focused on “upgrading its function from just being a manufacturer… to focus on value-added services: designing products, sourcing, branding and reaching out to consumers.”

Chinese apparel producers and brands are “not simply exporting; they’re talking about how they also leverage global sourcing to support their efforts in branding and designing products,” he added, not unlike the American fashion firms that employ offshore sourcing. And the products they’re producing aren’t just destined for the U.S. or Europe, but for China’s own domestic market and its shoppers, who represent a massive, fertile consumer base.

Lu’s research asserted that China’s apparel imports from ADCs could continue to increase over the course of the coming years—a trend that could go even further in reshaping global textile and apparel trade patterns, as 2025 World Trade Organization data shows that more than 60 percent of the world’s apparel exports come from China and ADCs combined.

China won’t lose its place in the hierarchy, he believes, because it still plays a critical role in the regional supply chain. “There’s no threat or near-term alternative to textile raw materials made in China,” he explained. “Almost all Asian countries, according to the trade statistics, have become ever more dependent raw materials supplied by China.”

The sourcing superpower is also taking that influence global, with China-owned factories springing up well beyond Asia, from Africa to Latin America. As such, China’s mainland textile and apparel industry no longer sees making huge volumes of clothing as a “strategic priority,” Lu said. “Rather, they’re focused on how to have more control over the supply chain.”