The Political Economy of China's E-commerce Boom with Lizhi Liu, Part 1

In this first installment of our two-part conversation with Professor Lizhi Liu, Todd sits down with one of the leading scholars shaping global understanding of China’s digital economy. Lizhi’s award-winning book, From Click to Boom, explores how political institutions and digital platforms co-evolved to fuel the world’s most sophisticated e-commerce ecosystem.

In this episode, Lizhi walks us through her academic journey, what sparked her interest in the political economy of tech, and the research that shaped her landmark book. She explains the scale and speed of China’s e-commerce boom, the institutional innovations that enabled it—from digital payments to logistics networks—and the profound social transformations that followed. We also take a deep dive into the rise of “Taobao Villages,” exploring how rural communities leveraged online commerce to reshape livelihoods and migration patterns.

Listeners will come away with a deeper understanding of how China built the most advanced e-commerce market in the world—and why similar growth hasn’t taken place in Western economies.

Discussion Points (Part 1):

• Lizhi’s academic background and path into studying the political economy of Chinese tech
• What led to the research behind From Click to Boom
• The global scale of China’s e-commerce market and how it compares to the West
• Foundational institutions that unlocked China’s e-commerce growth: payments, logistics, governance mechanisms
• Broader social and economic impacts of digital commerce, including rural revitalization
• The rise and significance of Taobao Villages