Faced with the uncertainty of global trade environment, China's PV module trade has shown strong competitiveness in the global PV market. This paper employs social network analysis, the trade dependence index (HM index), and an extended gravity model to analyze the evolutionary pattern, driving factors, and trade potential of China's photovoltaic module trade based on data from 2001 to 2021. The research reveals that since 2001, China's photovoltaic module trade has undergone a three-stage evolutionary pattern of "explosive growth-fluctuating development-sustained growth", with significant potential for development. Economic strength, population size, geographical distance, installed photovoltaic capacity, the degree of environmental regulation have emerged as the main factors influencing China's photovoltaic module export trade. The trade potential of China's photovoltaic module exports exhibits dynamic convergence characteristics and shows heterogeneity towards trade partners with different income levels and regions. To achieve high-quality development, China's PV industry should deepen cooperation with the Belt and Road partner countries and emerging markets through technological innovation, supply chain resilience improvement, and international rule alignment.