Since bilateral ties were officially established in 1980, China and Ecuador have enjoyed a robust partnership. In 2015, trade volume between the two countries hit US$ 4.1 billion, and China's imports from Ecuador were valued at over US$ 1.2 billion.

That's a sizeable increase of 16.4 percent compared with data from 2014. China's major exports to Ecuador are machinery, cars, and iron and steel, while Ecuador mainly sells crude oil, bananas and fish protein concentrate to China.

Ecuador is China's second-largest import source for bananas, behind the Philippines. By 2015, China has invested over US$ 6 billion in non-financial sectors in Ecuador, and signed off on a number of infrastructure projects with a total contract value of US$ 9.34 billion. Ecuador also has 42 investment projects currently running in China.