Evolution of export trade in Qinghai and influencing factors

Since the start of “the reform and opening-up” policy, external trade of Qinghai has developed rapidly, but significant differences exist between external trade and internal trade with the rest or largely eastern part of China．The export trade of Qinghai is now still dominated by resource-intensive products．We investigated the evolution of geographic patterns of export trade in Qinghai from 1995 to 2019．We further studied the formation of geographic patterns of export trade in Qinghai from aspects of economic freedom, cultural differences, and population based on the gravity model of trade．Export was found to be dominated by manufactured products with lower technical level, the degree of foreign trade dependence was low and gradually declined fluctuatingly．Qinghai has established close trade ties with neighboring countries of China and developing countries in other continents．The trading partners were found to be diverse, but the scale of exports was relatively balanced．Factors such as population and economic freedom of trading partners were all found to affect evolution of the geographic patterns of export trade．Economic volume, population, economic freedom, geographical distance and religious closeness to China were found to be the core factors of trading countries, but regional trade agreement was only secondary factor．We would suggest further development of export trade to provide support for future high-quality development in Qinghai．