Seventeen.

That's the number of China's actual working days in February, largely due to the Spring Festival.

Yet somehow, in such a short working month, exports soared to new highs, causing the trade surplus to boom once again.

According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, exports in February hit $82.1 billion, up 51.7 percent compared with that of the previous year. Imports reached $58.34 billion, rising 13.1 percent. The export growth rate was a record.

Wang Yifu, Vice Governor of Fujian Province and a member of Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, shared his views with Beijing Review on how to solve the trade imbalance.

Beijing Review: Early this year, the Ministry of Commerce stated that one of the major tasks of this year was to reduce the trade surplus. But we can see that the trade surplus in February was the second highest in history, following that of October 2006. How do you comment on this issue?

Wang Yifu: It means that the trade imbalance continues to grow and isn't constrained by any policies. The state policy is meant to curb the expanding trade surplus, but the result is just the opposite.