Official figures published on the Forum Macau website and based on the statistics of the Chinese Customs Services, Lisbon sold products to Beijing worth US$2.128 billion (about €1.7 billion), while China exported products to Portugal worth US$3.480 billion.

Although trade totalled US$5.608 billion, generating a surplus for China, Portugal paid China 13.81% less by value in 2017.

The same figures showed that trade between China and the Portuguese-speaking countries totalled US$117.588 billion last year, or an increase of 29.4% year-on-year.

Brazil is China's main trading partner among the Portuguese-speaking countries, with trade of US$87.534 billion. China acquired prodcts from Brazil worth US$58.302 billion and Brazil sold goods worth US$29.233 billion.

Between China and Brazil, trade increased by 29.5%, with imports from China increasing by 28.4% and sales to Brazil growing by nearly 32%.

China established the Macau Special Administrative Region as a platform for economic and trade cooperation with Portuguese-speaking countries in 2003, the year it also created Forum Macau, which meets at ministerial level every three years.