The allure of the Chinese market attracts global cross-border e-commerce platforms

The allure of the Chinese market continues to attract global businesses thanks to the country’s manufacturing power, industrial clusters and innovation, cementing its position as a key player in the global e-commerce market.

The world’s leading e-commerce platform Amazon launched its global sales industry belt accelerator project in Xiamen, South China’s Fujian Province, on June 26. More than six months ago, Amazon opened its first innovation center in the world in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. The two moves reflect Amazon’s confidence and ambition to expand its presence in the Chinese market.

Jin Yanzhen, vice president of Amazon China, said Amazon saw a new phenomenon in China’s manufacturing sector.

“We have seen the emergence of industrial belts in different regions of the country, such as consumer electronics in Shenzhen, furniture and home furnishings in Foshan and massage equipment in Ningbo. These industrial belts are accumulating resources to showcase the charm of Chinese manufacturing,” Jin said.

Industrial clusters bring cost benefits, especially in logistics, enabling the delivery of affordable, high-quality products to consumers. In the rapidly growing cross-border e-commerce sector, the pace of innovation in Chinese manufacturing has become a significant magnet for international platforms.

The popularity of high-tech, high-value-added products from China in overseas markets reflects the attractiveness and resilience of Chinese manufacturing.

The latest data reveals that China’s total merchandise trade exceeded 21 trillion yuan (about 3 trillion U.S. dollars) in the first half of this year. Exports reached 12.13 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 6.9 percent. Notably, exports of electromechanical products increased by 8.2 percent, while the automotive sector and automatic data processing equipment and related components recorded growth rates of 22.2 percent and 10.3 percent, respectively.

“Our industrial belts create scale and synergy for the respective supporting resources, thus creating benefits for our industrial belt products. Whether from the market side or our business side, it is actually a two-way strengthening process, which helps to guide the future development of China’s manufacturing, leveraging the needs of cross-border e-commerce and realizing digital transformation and upgrading. This allows us to better cope with the changing dynamics of global market competition,” said Li Mingtao, head of the research institute of the China International Electronic Commerce Center under the Ministry of Commerce.

The allure of the Chinese market attracts global cross-border e-commerce platforms

A United Nations (UN) official described the scene at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after the July 13 Israeli attacks, saying the air smelled of blood.

The Israeli military on Saturday attacked the Mawasi area in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, a place designated by the Israeli side as a “safe zone” and home to a large number of displaced people. The attacks killed at least 90 people and wounded about 300.

Scott Anderson, the UN’s deputy humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, told a news conference via video link on Monday that the local health centre was overwhelmed and lacked basic medical care and supplies.

After the bombing of the Mawasi area, Nasser Hospital was inundated with wounded, many of them women and children with serious injuries that threatened paralysis or amputations. Anderson said what he saw in the hospital was “some of the most incredible scenes I’ve seen” in the nine months since he arrived in Gaza.

“The air was filled with the smell of blood, and one healthcare worker was mopping up pools of blood on the floor with only water because there are not enough disinfectants or other cleaning products to stop the spread of infection. There are not enough beds, hygiene products, sheets, mattresses or gowns. Many patients were treated on the floor or on benches in the waiting room without disinfectants, which puts even treatable injuries at risk of sepsis and much more serious complications. Our ventilation systems were not working because of electrical problems. As I walked around the hospital and talked to families and children, we saw toddlers who had double amputations, children who were paralyzed and unable to receive treatment because they don’t have the equipment in the hospital,” Anderson said.

Speaking to the wounded in the hospital, Anderson learned that the family had traveled around Gaza in search of a so-called “safe zone,” but ultimately could not avoid the attacks. He also saw many parents in the hospital searching for their missing children. Anderson said that no one in Gaza is safe and called for a ceasefire and an end to the conflict as soon as possible. “One mother I spoke to told me that she was told to move to Rafah because it would be ‘safe’ there. Then she was told to move to Mawasi because it would be ‘safe’ there. Unfortunately for her and her family, that was not true. I think this mother’s words are a reminder that nowhere in Gaza is safe, no one is safe in Gaza. A complete ceasefire is urgently needed by all parties to the conflict to protect civilians wherever they are, especially schools and UN hospitals,” Anderson said.

Gaza Strip air suffused with stench of blood: UN officer