Shanghai is not only the largest city in China's economy, but also the leading center of international economy, finance, shipping, trade and global scientific and technological innovation, and one of the "big cows" of national financial transfer payment.

The total economic output of Shanghai is equivalent to 2.4 Wuhan, 4 Xi and 6 Changchun. Shanghai's GDP is equivalent to about 80% of the total of Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jilin, and more than three times that of Jilin Province.

Every year, as many as 37,000 international ships enter Shanghai Port, and Shanghai's container throughput ranks first in the world for 12 years. Shanghai's total foreign trade volume ranks first in the country, its export volume is second only to Shenzhen, and its import volume is far ahead of the whole country. China Import Expo was held in Shanghai. Compared with other port cities, the importance of Shanghai lies in that it is one of the regions with the densest import and export of high-tech industries in China.

Shanghai exports mainly mechanical and electrical products, and imports mainly high-tech products such as integrated circuits and medicines. This has something to do with the industrial structure in Shanghai. Shanghai takes automobile manufacturing, integrated circuits, biomedicine and artificial intelligence as its pillar industries, and the smooth import and export of high-tech industries is related to the stability of the whole industrial chain.