Last December, China’s State Council officialized the addition of 24 new Chinese cities to an experimental cross-border e-commerce platform. This is designed, according to official documents, to further increase China’s trade volume, support the upgrading of China’s manufacturing industry, and China’s innovation capacity.

Although the State Council announcement heavily insists on the coherence of these policies with the more general strategic lines decided by China’s Communist Party (CCP), such as Xi Jinping’s signature “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era” or the “Four Comprehensives,” the text oddly does not make any