In Depth: Logistics Is Getting Pricy in China, but Reform Will Be a Long Haul

China’s powerful e-commerce economy was built on the back of a robust logistics infrastructure that allows consumers to receive items ordered on platforms within days, or even hours.

That’s the conventional wisdom. But the success story masks deeper flaws and inefficiencies in Chinese logistics. One is that shipping goods in China relies heavily on trucking. The relatively expensive freight mode drove up overall logistics costs to 18.2 trillion yuan ($2.5 trillion) in 2023, equaling 14.4% of China’s GDP — far surpassing the proportions in the USA (7%) and Japan (5%).