SHANGHAI -- The United States has become China's largest source of service imports, contributing the most to China's deficit in service trade in 2019, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

China's service imports from the United States amounted to $257.45 billion since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2017, the ministry said Friday in a report released on the sidelines of the ongoing third China International Import Expo.

The defining feature of China-US trade-in-services cooperation is mutually beneficial, said the report, noting that US companies have played an active role in the development of China's service trade.

Meanwhile, China's service imports have substantially met the needs of US service exporters, which have gained substantial profits and returns, thus promoting the development of the US economy, it said.

However, the economic and trade frictions between China and the United States have significantly affected China's import of services from the United States, the report noted.

In 2019, China's service imports from the United States dropped by 4 percent year on year to $83.47 billion, which accounted for 16.6 percent of China's total service imports, data from the ministry showed.