A packet forwarding method, wherein the method is applied to a virtual private wire service pseudo wire, VPWS PW, redundancy network, the VPWS PW redundancy network comprises a first provider edge, PE, device, a second PE device, and a third PE device, a primary PW is set up between the first PE device and the second PE device, a secondary PW is set up between the first PE device and the third PE device, a bypass pseudo wire, bypass PW, is set up between the second PE device and the third PE device, and the method comprises: sending, by the first PE device, a first packet to the second PE device by using the primary PW, wherein the first packet is used to request to switch the primary PW from an active state of forwarding traffic to a balance state of forwarding traffic, and the balance state is used to instruct to forward traffic in a traffic balancing manner; sending, by the first PE device, a second packet to the third PE device by using the secondary PW, wherein the second packet is used to request to switch the secondary PW from a standby state of not forwarding traffic to the balance state of forwarding traffic; receiving, by the first PE device, a response packet from the second PE device by using the primary PW, wherein the response packet is determined and obtained by the second PE device based on the first packet and the second packet, the second packet is forwarded by the third PE device and is received by the second PE device by using the bypass PW, and the response packet is used to indicate that switching requests in the first packet and the second packet are accepted; and switching, by the first PE device based on the response packet, a preferential forwarding status of the first PE device relative to the primary PW from the active state of forwarding traffic to the balance state of forwarding traffic and a preferential forwarding status of the first PE device relative to the secondary PW from the standby state of not forwarding traffic to the balance state of forwarding traffic. sending, by the first PE device, a first packet to the second PE device by using the primary PW, wherein the first packet is used to request to switch the primary PW from an active state of forwarding traffic to a balance state of forwarding traffic, and the balance state is used to instruct to forward traffic in a traffic balancing manner; sending, by the first PE device, a second packet to the third PE device by using the secondary PW, wherein the second packet is used to request to switch the secondary PW from a standby state of not forwarding traffic to the balance state of forwarding traffic; receiving, by the first PE device, a response packet from the second PE device by using the primary PW, wherein the response packet is determined and obtained by the second PE device based on the first packet and the second packet, the second packet is forwarded by the third PE device and is received by the second PE device by using the bypass PW, and the response packet is used to indicate that switching requests in the first packet and the second packet are accepted; and switching, by the first PE device based on the response packet, a preferential forwarding status of the first PE device relative to the primary PW from the active state of forwarding traffic to the balance state of forwarding traffic and a preferential forwarding status of the first PE device relative to the secondary PW from the standby state of not forwarding traffic to the balance state of forwarding traffic.