BEIJING — China's Commerce Ministry on Wednesday said non-economic factors were growing and interfering with the country's foreign trade which was facing an "extremely severe" situation in the second half of this year. "Some countries' forceful push for 'decoupling,' 'severing [supply] chains' and so-called 'de-risking' are human-made obstacles blocking normal commerce," Li Xingqian, the head of the ministry's external trade department, said in Mandarin, according to a CNBC translation. He was speaking to reporters at a press conference about the ministry's work in the first half of the year. China's exports, a significant contributor to domestic growth, have plunged in recent months as global growth has slowed. He also said that since trade had risen during the three years of the Covid-19 pandemic, that had set a high base for this year's figures.

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Persons: Li Xingqian, Li Organizations: BEIJING, China's Commerce Ministry, CNBC