Against the backdrop of frequent external uncertainties, the export of goods has entered an era of slow growth. Promoting the participation of the producer services in the global value chains (GVCs) is a crucial part of China’s efforts to advance high-level opening-up and is expected to help build up China’s strength in trade. To explore the progress of China’s producer services in participating in the GVCs and its role in building up China’s strength in trade, this paper, based on the ADB global input-output table from 2000 to 2023, analyzes the basic characteristics of China’s producer services in participating in the GVCs and measures the domestic value-added rate of intermediate exports for international comparisons. The findings of this paper are as follows. Firstly, the participation of China’s producer services in the GVCs has experienced a dynamic trend from rising to falling, making it one of the countries with the lowest participation in the GVCs; most of China’s producer services have achieved the shift from downstream to upstream positions in the GVCs; and the GVC value-added capacity of most producer services in China has experienced significant growth. Secondly, compared to developed countries, China’s high-end producer services rely more on GVC activities and have weaker value-added capabilities in the GVCs. Thirdly, China’s GVC activities have not shown a clear service-oriented trend consistent with the global trend. The impact of China’s producer services on the GVC trade competitiveness of the manufacturing industry continues to increase, but there is a problem of insufficient support for high-end producer services. Therefore, we should take multiple measures to promote the deep participation of producer services in the GVCs, accelerate the breakthrough of high-end producer services, cultivate new competitive advantages in participating in the GVCs, and deepen the integration of manufacturing and services to aid in building up China’s strength in trade.