China firms dominate our online shopping — yet politicians want its ambassador expelled

THREE companies dominate online shopping in the Philippines: Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop. All three have substantial connections to Chinese entrepreneurs, corporations or capital. Two – Lazada and TikTok Shop – are owned by Chinese conglomerates, Alibaba and ByteDance, respectively, while the third, Shopee, is controlled by a Singaporean corporation whose founder was born in China and whose major investors include China’s technology giant Tencent.

I myself have over the years used Lazada quite a lot, and purchased a variety of items, from Balvenies to basketballs to books. Yes, the Ateneo and UP presses use Lazada and Shopee to sell their books online, and a lot of my two books Debunked and Debacle were sold through these two online shops. Because of traffic getting worse, pollution, and crowded parking spaces, I prefer getting items I need by a few clicks on my keyboard.

Beyond these three giants, other Chinese-founded online shopping enterprises — Temu, AliExpress and SHEIN — also serve Filipino consumers. Their presence demonstrates how deeply Chinese businesses have penetrated the Philippine consumer economy, not through political coercion or military power, but through commercial enterprises patronized voluntarily by millions of Filipinos.

This extraordinary presence of Chinese-founded businesses in one of the country’s most dynamic commercial sectors exposes a glaring contradiction in the increasingly strident anti-China rhetoric of Philippine politicians.

Senators, congressmen and one China-hater Jay Tarriela of the Coast Guard portray China as an intolerable adversary – the “biggest threat to the country,” stridently anti-Chinese defense secretary Gilberto Teodoro has declared so many times. In the past several days, they have atrociously demanded that China’s ambassador be declared persona non grata, which means his expulsion. They are remarkably unconcerned that Chinese businesses and capital have become deeply embedded in the daily commercial activities of Filipinos.

Does our politicians’ hostility toward China conveniently end where the economic interests of their constituents begin?

Market

Momentum Works’ Ecommerce in Southeast Asia 2026 reported that the Chinese-dominated Philippine platform e-commerce market reached approximately $21.1 billion in gross merchandise value in 2025, equivalent to roughly P1.18 trillion at an exchange rate of P56 to the dollar. To put that $21 billion figure in perspective, the country’s total imports from China were $38 billion.

Shopee accounted for an estimated 49 percent of sales on the three leading platforms, TikTok Shop for 29 percent, and Lazada for 22 percent. These percentages represent gross merchandise value rather than corporate revenues and should not be confused with shares of all Philippine online retailing, which also includes other marketplaces, independent websites and social-media commerce.

Shopee, the largest platform, is owned by Singapore-headquartered Sea Limited. Its founder and chief executive, Forrest Li, was born in China but later on became a Singaporean citizen. China’s technology giant Tencent is its biggest shareholder with 17 percent. Li has a smaller 16 percent although he reportedly controls 58 percent of the firm’s voting power, through special voting shares and proxy arrangements.

TikTok Shop – an extension of the mammoth social media platform with a claimed 64 million Filipino users – belongs to ByteDance, the Chinese-founded technology conglomerate behind TikTok. ByteDance was founded in Beijing by Chinese entrepreneurs and has grown into one of the world’s most influential technology companies.

Lazada is a subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., the Chinese e-commerce giant founded by Jack Ma. Alibaba acquired control of Lazada in 2016 and subsequently invested heavily in expanding its Southeast Asian operations.

Ma

However, after Ma publicly criticized China’s financial regulators in October 2020, Beijing halted the planned $37 billion IPO of his holding firm Ant Group and launched an antitrust crackdown on Alibaba, imposing a record $2.75 billion fine in 2021. Under intense regulatory pressure, Ma relinquished control of Ant Group in 2023, while his influence over Alibaba diminished considerably. Beijing effectively marginalized Ma’s corporate power. Alibaba’s annual reports themselves acknowledge the substantial regulatory discretion exercised by Chinese authorities over its businesses.

Chinese-founded e-commerce enterprises have established an even broader presence in Philippine online shopping through other platforms. Temu, the international discount shopping marketplace associated with PDD Holdings, offers Filipino consumers a vast assortment of inexpensive merchandise. AliExpress, another Alibaba enterprise, provides access to products sold by merchants internationally, particularly those based in China. SHEIN, the Chinese-founded fashion retailer now headquartered in Singapore, has developed an extensive international business selling clothing, accessories and other consumer goods.

Of course Filipinos also purchase goods through American platforms such as Amazon and eBay, Singaporean enterprises such as Carousell, and locally established retailers such as ShopSM and various supermarket and department-store websites. While Philippine online retailing is not exclusively Chinese, these other platforms account for a very low 5 percent of the market. I have shunned Amazon.com as often its shipping costs – understandably – are as big as the product’s price.

The irony is difficult to miss. Politicians warn Filipinos almost daily about the dangers of Chinese influence, while millions of their constituents willingly conduct transactions through enterprises built by Chinese entrepreneurs and supported by Chinese capital.

If in its exasperation, China decides to deliver some damage to the country, and orders the Chinese-owned or linked online platforms to cease operations here, the consequence would be just short of catastrophic.

Grocery

Lazada and Shopee are no longer merely marketplaces for Chinese gadgets, clothing and inexpensive household merchandise. They have penetrated the everyday grocery market, selling rice, canned sardines, corned beef, instant noodles, coffee, milk, biscuits and cooking condiments. Even familiar Filipino brands such as Lucky Me, Mega Sardines, Argentina and Datu Puti are sold through these platforms. Would you believe my favorite Lapid’s chicharon, roasted peanuts, and even fried kangkong are sold in these online shops?

The more important lesson here is that the Philippine economy has become deeply interconnected with China, whether politicians approve of the relationship or not. This interdependence extends far beyond online shopping. China supplies machinery, electronics, industrial inputs and consumer goods used throughout the Philippine economy. It is also an important market for Philippine exports.

Political leaders who treat diplomatic confrontation with China as a cost-free demonstration of patriotism ignore these economic realities.

JV Ejercito, whose main qualification to be Senator is that he is the son of former President Joseph Estrada, in his Facebook post claimed that the “West Philippine Sea” is ours. He doesn’t know that it is not that superpower alone which claims that it has sovereignty over swathes of our Exclusive Economic Zone, which President Aquino declared in 2012 as part of what he dubbed through an administrative order “West Philippine Sea.” Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei also do so.

These unresolved sovereignty and maritime-area disputes make diplomacy more necessary, not less. Expelling an ambassador because legislators dislike his statements would hardly bring the countries closer to an agreement.

The Philippines must deal with China as it actually exists: a major economic and military power, one of the world’s two leading trading nations, and a country with which we share extensive commercial relationships alongside serious political disagreements. Pretending that China can simply be isolated from the Philippine economy is patently stupid.

We must recognize the undeniable fact that it is the US which is behind all this anti-China hysteria, as it wants to make the Philippines its anti-China outpost in our part of the world. The silver lining in all this, though, is that it has exposed how ignorant and easily-brainwashed some of our senators are, especially the Yellow idiots and the likes of Ejercito. Presenting China’s side of our disputes is not being a Chinese stooge and, according to Ejercito, a traitor. It is refusing to be a US mouthpiece.

Patriotism requires defending the country’s interests, not sacrificing them for a few minutes of television exposure, for newspaper coverage, or views in social media.

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China firms dominate our online shopping — yet politicians want its ambassador expelled
Source: Breaking News PH