Countertrade (CT), in its purest form, is the exchange of product for product rather than product for currency in conventional trade. CT policy and practice in China is investigated. The issues that naturally emerge are: 1. Do transitional market economy (TME) importers actually request particular types of CT financing arrangements on particular country groups? 2. Do TME importers request particular types of CT financing arrangements on particular countries within those groups? 3. Are there any other explanations regarding the particular types of CT and country groupings? The survey into Chinese CT is based on historical data obtained from published sources of Chinese CT transactions for the year 1989 to 1993 inclusive. Simple descriptive and inferential statistics are used to quantify some of the results.