If indeed e-commerce is a battlefield in a new Cold War, then China has thus far put up a weak fight. While there are certain places—like Brazil—where Amazon, the Chinese e-commerce companies, and regional or homegrown alternatives are all vying for logistical supremacy, Amazon is by far the most dominant e-commerce company globally. Moreover, there are major obstacles to Chinese e-commerce growth internationally; indeed, it is difficult to imagine the key Chinese companies as a whole catching up with Amazon any time soon, let alone as individual companies.

But rather than affirming US dominance in a second Cold War, the analysis here can just as easily be employed to question the applicability of this framework to the case of e-commerce. China is unquestionably “behind” the US when it comes to global e-commerce penetration, but it’s not clear that winning this particular race is its goal.