Exports has been a major component supporting China's rapid economic expansion. In the last few years, machinery and transport equipment accounted for almost half of total exports, in particular, electrical machinery, apparatus and appliances (14 percent), telecommunications and sound recording and reproducing apparatus and equipment (12 percent), office machines and automatic data processing machines (8 percent), and general industrial machinery and equipment, and machine parts (5 percent). Other major export categories were: miscellaneous manufactured articles (23 percent), manufactured goods classified chiefly by material (16 percent) such as textile yarn, fabrics, made-up articles (5 percent), manufactures of metals (4 percent) and iron and steel (2 percent); chemicals and related products (6 percent); and food and live animals (3 percent). The EU and US were the largest destinations of China's shipments, accounting for more than 15 percent followed by Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Germany, India and the Netherlands (3 percent).
