Asian Journal of Economics, Finance and Management

China’s expansion as a trading economy has occurred alongside extensive investment in transport networks, industrial capabilities, tax administration, and place-based development. This narrative review examines how fiscal instruments may influence trade competitiveness and economic integration while distinguishing documented policy effects from concurrent changes in aggregate trade. A five-channel framework organises the evidence around trade-cost reduction, risk mitigation, agglomeration, signalling, and institutional simplification. The synthesis combines peer-reviewed research on Chinese firms, special economic zones, value-added tax rebates, infrastructure, and industrial subsidies with official trade, fiscal, and logistics statistics. Merchandise trade reached 42.07 trillion yuan in 2022 and 45.47 trillion yuan in 2025, although these levels cannot be attributed exclusively to fiscal intervention. Evidence from quasi-experimental firm-level studies supports effects of particular tax and zone policies but also reveals heterogeneous outcomes, displacement risks, and potential productivity losses from poorly targeted subsidies. Port and logistics indicators illustrate the scale of physical connectivity, whereas the diversification of trading partners and rapid growth of selected green-product exports illustrate evolving market structure. Rising public and quasi-fiscal liabilities, environmental trade-offs, and external trade-policy responses constrain the sustainability of an investment-intensive approach. A more durable strategy would prioritise transparent fiscal evaluation, productive public goods, predictable tax arrangements, domestic-demand resilience, environmentally credible production, and reciprocal trade facilitation. The review offers a bounded analytical interpretation rather than a new causal estimate of fiscal policy’s aggregate contribution to exports.