This paper analyzed the role of processing trade in China’s bilateral trade balances and the impact of the yuan’s appreciation on processing trade. The analysis is based on a panel data covering China’s 51 major trading partners from 1993-2008. The empirical analysis shows that: (1) processing trade accounted for 100% of China’s overall trade surplus and could explain most of China’s bilateral trade balances; (2) China’s processing trade shows a significant regional bias. While China has maintained a surplus with all G-7 countries in processing trade, it has run a significant deficit with most of East Asian economies; (3) East Asian economies are major sources and account for 77% of China’s processing imports. The econometric analysis reveals that processing imports from East Asian is eleven times of that from other regions; (4) the response of processing imports to the yuan’s appreciation differs with that of normal trade. Specifically, a 10% real appreciation of the yuan will reduce rather than increase China’s processing imports by 3.9%. Given that processing exports will decrease 9.6% for the same appreciation and China’s trade surplus is mainly generated from processing trade, a moderate appreciation of the yuan would have a very limited impact on China’s trade balances.