Abstract:

Speaker: Yong LI, Dysolab, Université de Rouen Normandie, France

Coauthor: Liang SU, School of Law, Hangzhou Dianzhi University, China

Against the backdrop of the Sino-US trade war, the decoupling of China and the West, and deflation in the Chinese economy, Chinese cross-border e-commerce continues to grow in 2025, supported by growth in emerging markets. Driven by unemployment and fear of social downgrading, more and more Chinese citizens are investing in the El Dorado of cross-border e-commerce, which they called “the blue ocean”: ASEAN countries, Central Asia, Russia, the Middle East, and Latin America. How do people from modest backgrounds become transnational economic actors? What does “border crossing” mean in the era of robotization, the widespread use of AI, and the global expansion of Chinese platforms (Temu, Shein, TikTok Shop, etc.)? This presentation attempts to provide some initial answers based on ethnographic research in Yiwu, the world’s largest wholesale market for small goods, among cross-border e-commerce actors (shop owners in International Trade City, e-commerce sellers, AI experts, platform employees, etc.).

Our analysis focuses on the intricate relationship between e-merchants and platforms, on the one hand, and between digital entrepreneurship and state borders on the other. Our analysis is threefold: 1/We are witnessing a new phase in the development of Chinese digital capitalism, which is prioritizing cross-border e-commerce in non-Western countries to support its growth. 2/ The expansion of Chinese platforms beyond China’s borders relies on the digital entrepreneurship of a mass of grassroots players, whose relationship with the platforms is characterized by symbiosis, domination, and resistance. 3/ After a period of rapid growth, China’s cross-border e-commerce has become an increasingly stratified and segmented field, with winners and losers emerging according to existing social divides. Combining a political-economic perspective with microsociological analysis, this presentation calls for greater attention to be paid to the role played by grassroots actors in the transformation of Chinese digital capitalism.

Keywords: e-commerce, digital entrepreneur, border crossing, platform, social boundary

Academic bio:

Yong Li is a sociologist and research fellow at the Dysolab laboratory, University of Rouen Normandy. His work is built around three main themes: the life courses of skilled Chinese migrants in France and their transnational mobility; anti-Asian racism in France and the racial struggles of young people of Asian origin; migration, cross-border e-commerce and digital labor in China. ORCID:

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5039-9505;

This seminar will be held in English.
Corrado Neri, Director of the CEFC Taipei, will chair the session.