BEIJING: China’s trade surplus is expected to exceed $140 billion this year. Assistant Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying said trade surplus will stay for “a quite long period of time,” partly because China has beco-me a manufacturing ce-ntre for Western cou-nt-ries due to its low lab-our costs. Previous stati-stics showed that in the first nine months of the year, exports exceeded imports by $110.9 billion, surpassing the all-time high trade gap of $102 billion in 2005.