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The main goal of the article is to analyze the impact of foreign trade on China's position in the world economy. This is not a description of short-term trends and the reaction of the economic centre, but we focus on the long-term processes that are associated with changes in the mechanisms of economic functioning. Based on our understanding of the Chinese economy after World War II, there were three basic periods concerning foreign trade, characterized by a different approach to external relations. Each of these periods is semantically unique in meaning and, therefore, specific. We focused our attention not only on the selected macroeconomic indicators, such as gross domestic product, export performance, foreign investment inflows and outflows, but also on China's share of world gross domestic product. To achieve statistical relevance, we compared macroeconomic data in the monitored phases through the median. The values achieved clearly demonstrated fluctuations in the economic activity of the Chinese economy and changes in the position of foreign trade. Our research shows that the Chinese economy has already begun a qualitative change from an export-oriented economy to internal growth in the first decade of the 21st century.