Abstract: Developing publishing trade is an important way for China to promote cultural exchanges with other countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). In order to explore whether the BRI can help China’s publishing industry to achieve the new development of foreign trade with the support of policies and funds, this paper studies the effect and mechanism of the BRI on China’s publications export trade by using the difference-in-differences model. Based on this, it analyzes heterogeneous effect of the BRI on different countries from the three aspects of economic development level, Whether it is a country along six economic corridors and cultural distance. The study finds that China’s publications export trade is in the growth stage, the BRI has significantly promoted the development of China’s publications export trade, and there is a time lag in this positive effect. The BRI promotes the expansion of publications export trade by optimizing the scientific and technological development level of countries involved in the BRI and increasing foreign direct investment. In addition, heterogeneity study shows that the BRI has a significant positive impact on the development of publications export trade in low- and middle-income countries and countries along six economic corridors, and the trade promotion effect is the most obvious for countries with similar cultural backgrounds.