Robot arms make auto body at a workshop in Shenyang, Northeast China's Liaoning province, on April 6, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

Due to the Lunar New Year holiday being extended in a bid to reduce the transmission of the novel coronavirus and the disruption it has caused to factory output and industry supply chains, China's foreign trade took a big hit in January and February, with exports dropping 17.2 percent and imports decreasing 4 percent, according to the General Administration of Customs on Saturday.

That has sparked fears that the country could lose its position at the center of the global supply chain because foreign companies might consider relocating their operations to other countries or seek to shift their buying of parts and components elsewhere.Which is not surprising.

Thanks to the effective control and prevention measures the country has taken, the epidemic has been basically contained within China to Hubei province, with no new cases of infection reported outside the province for a number of days. Thus the negative impacts on China's economy and foreign trade will only be temporary.

China has become deeply embedded in the global supply chain not out of coincidence, but because of the irreplaceable advantages it enjoys, such as its high-quality infrastructure, skilled and comparatively low-cost labor and booming innovation capabilities. It is the only country in the world that has all the industrial categories listed in the United Nations industrial classification. These advantages have not disappeared in just a few weeks because of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

For example, China's automobile industry chain already has some integrity in some cutting-edge technology fields. It has a whole industrial chain from upstream parts to mid-stream suppliers, then to downstream vehicle manufacturers and travel service providers. Many multinational car companies have also seen this and not only see China as a manufacturing center based in Asia and even around the world, but also set up R&D and testing centers in China.

The country's economy, which now relies more on domestic consumption than exports, has already demonstrated its resilience in the face of the outbreak. Thanks to its vast consumer market gradually recovering, as well as the many targeted support policies the government has rolled out, auto sales, for example, have already started to bounce back, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

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