Against the backdrop of the flourishing digital economy, digital trade, as the core content of the new round of information technology and industrial revolution led by digital technologies, is profoundly reshaping the global economic development landscape. To reveal the pivotal role of data factor flows in productivity leaps, elucidate the central position of digital trade in enhancing total factor productivity, and provide theoretical support and policy recommendations for China to seize strategic opportunities in global digital economic competition, this paper conducts a tripartite analysis based on the theoretical logic of China’s excellent traditional culture, the historical logic of world economic development, and the practical logic of China’s reform and opening-up. The core essence of developing productive forces can be summarized as “flow” and accordingly, this paper systematically explores the intrinsic mechanisms and implementation pathways through which digital trade empowers the development of new quality productive forces. The research findings indicate: first, data factors possess characteristics such as non-competitiveness and spatiotemporal transcendence, and their cross-border flows can significantly enhance total factor productivity through “network synergy effects” and “entropy reduction effects.” Second, the broad category of digital trade is becoming the core carrier of new quality productive forces, with its development level showing a significant positive correlation with the growth in invention patent applications and the increase in value-added of high-tech manufacturing. Third, China needs to construct a dual-circulation pathway of “Digital Silk Road + DEPA framework” to promote the reform of the global digital governance system while ensuring data security. The conclusion demonstrates that digital trade under high-quality opening conditions can accelerate the formation of a new quality productive force system characterized by high technology, high efficiency, and high quality through the market-oriented allocation of data factors.