Twenty-five years ago

TOKYO (September 17): CHINA expanded her foreign trade by 54 per cent in 1973, according to estimates made by the Japanese Foreign Ministry, moving from a $200 million surplus in 1972 to $500 million deficit.

The estimates is based on the trade in the trade figures of China's major trading partners in the absence of any statistics released by Peking.

The Foreign Ministry believes that exports increased by some 40 per cent to $4,120 million in 1973 and imports by 70 per cent to $4,670 million. The most rapid increase in directions was with advanced, non-communist countries, which raised their share of China's total by 59 per cent to $5,200 million.