China has faced years of eroding garment exports as buyers looked to diversify their supply chains. This decline in apparel exports was hastened by the pandemic. However, China's massive textile sector is still going strong, regardless of the pandemic. China's exports of textiles and garments rose 5.62% year-on-year to $187.41 billion in the first eight months of the year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). The pace of increase accelerated 0.05 percentage points from the January-July period, the MIIT data showed. During the period, the country's exports of textiles stood at $104.8 billion, up 31.99% year-on-year, while garment exports dropped 15.74% to $82.61 billion, the ministry said. Even as garment production migrates out of China, most nations still rely on China for raw materials. It’s a trend that’s likely to continue, especially as foreign direct investment in the textile industry has been put on ‘hold’ as a result of the pandemic. For now, most investors are waiting to see what a post-pandemic scenario would look like. In August, China's garment exports totalled $16.21 billion, up 3.23% year-on-year, the first monthly growth since the start of the year. However, apparel exports to the U.S. for the first seven months of the year saw a steep decline - in value and in market share. China’s share of the U.S. market fell 6.43% during the period, while imports from Bangladesh rose nearly 1%, while apparel imports from Vietnam rose about 3% in the January to July period. Driven by growth in demand for epidemic prevention textiles including masks, textile exports climbed 46.96% year-on-year to $14.72 billion, according to the MIIT