Chinese companies and e-commerce platforms have accelerated their global expansion in recent years. Cross-border platforms such as AliExpress, TikTok Shop and Temu have gained widespread popularity worldwide, attracting e-commerce enthusiasts to China to learn from their success.
As an important measure under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Silk Road e-commerce has become a vital channel for multilateral and bilateral trade cooperation.
A cross-border e-commerce company staff member drives a forklift to move imported goods at a bonded warehouse in Jinhua city, east China's Zhejiang Province, June 16, 2025. (Photo/Yang Meiqing)
China has been working with Silk Road e-commerce partner countries to advance digital development, offering tailored training programs to boost e-commerce capabilities for governments and businesses, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
Since its launch in 2020, the Silk Road E-Commerce Online Lectures program has held 108 sessions, reaching participants in more than 80 countries. The sessions have been tailored for regions including Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). These online and offline training sessions helped develop e-commerce talent in participating countries.
Wang Shubin, Party head of Guangxi International Business Vocational College in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said at the Silk Road E-Commerce Online Lectures for ASEAN that the college is taking the lead in vocational education and cross-border e-commerce. He said the college leverages the Silk Road e-commerce and Guangxi's position as China's gateway to Southeast Asia.
The college has established 10 overseas Guihai Business Hub platforms in partnership with universities and companies in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Working with enterprises, the college has provided Chinese Plus Cross-Border E-commerce training to more than 6,000 participants. It also has cultivated talent in livestream operations, AI-powered product selection and cross-border customer service, helping more than 400 enterprises expand into Silk Road markets.
Visitors are seen at TikTok Shop's exhibition booth at the Yellow River Basin Cross-border E-commerce Expo 2025. (Photo/Zhang Jin'gang)
The true potential of these efforts comes to life through personal stories. One example is Eugene, an Uzbek businessman who initially doubted digital commerce platforms despite being aware of them. As a traditional foreign trade merchant, he was skeptical about the security of cross-border e-commerce and questioned whether it could support large-scale business operations.
That changed in April last year, when Eugene's company joined Alibaba.com, a leading Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform. His team quickly launched multilingual product listings in English, Russian and Arabic on the platform. Within the first month, he received a $1,200 trial order from a British customer. Shortly after, a Belgian supermarket chain placed a $9,000 order, which was soon followed by repeat orders double the amount.
"We now receive daily orders from customers in the U.K., Hungary, Russia, and other countries, with European orders making up 65 percent of total sales," he said.
Eugene's story mirrors China's efforts to promote global e-commerce cooperation. According to MOFCOM spokesperson He Yongqian, China's e-commerce sector has leveraged its strengths in innovation, emerging business models and market scale to actively promote international e-commerce cooperation.
A livestreamer for a cross-border e-commerce company in Yuhua district, Changsha, central China's Hunan Province, promotes specialty products on an overseas social media platform. (Xinhua/Bai Tiantian)
China continues to create an environment that is enabling global e-commerce collaboration. The Chinese government has advanced Silk Road e-commerce cooperation by establishing intergovernmental e-commerce mechanisms, aligning policies and regulations, and promoting bilateral cooperation, including local-level partnerships, said Li Mingtao, a member of the Expert Advisory Committee for Development of National E-Commerce Demonstration Cities.
Li added that E-commerce clauses have been incorporated into multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations, creating favorable regulatory environments for two-way e-commerce cooperation.
The numbers speak for themselves. To date, China's Silk Road e-commerce partnerships have expanded to 35 countries. The country has developed multiple cooperation brands, established 120 online and offline national pavilions, built 65 direct procurement bases across 19 countries, and conducted more than 100 e-commerce training sessions through the Silk Road E-Commerce Online Lectures, significantly advancing global e-commerce cooperation.
Since the beginning of 2025, the MOFCOM has launched a campaign themed around how e-commerce benefits the world, involving 18 regions and eight major platforms across four key areas: policy communication, industrial integration, capacity building and local partnerships.
The campaign has introduced 40 cooperation projects, enabling partner countries to choose those that best fit their needs and making e-commerce collaboration more efficient and practical.
Looking ahead, China plans to expand imports of high-quality specialty products, support industrial digitalization, deepen e-commerce supply chain cooperation and ensure that various activities yield concrete results to build a global e-commerce market that benefits all participants, He said.
(Source: People's Daily Online )