Illustration: Xia Qing/GT

In Horgos, a border city in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, cross-border livestreaming has been gaining traction as a channel for trade. According to the People's Daily, the city has seen the growing presence of traders and business visitors from Central Asia and Europe. One Kazakh trader, who operates from a local livestreaming base, now focuses on cross-border apparel trade. Supported by competitively priced Chinese goods and efficient cross-border logistics, her daily shipments reach about 500 kilograms.

The expansion of cross-border livestreaming depends on far more than a mobile phone. It rests on a wider chain of infrastructure, including pre-positioned warehouses and distribution systems that link producers, platforms and overseas buyers. According to the Xinjiang Daily, in the first quarter of this year, one cross-border e-commerce center in Horgos hosted more than 100 livestreaming sessions, attracting around 100,000 overseas viewers and generating over 2 million yuan ($294,746) in online transactions. 

Horgos offers a glimpse into the broader development across Xinjiang, where e-commerce has become more closely integrated with the local economy. Individually, many of these operations remain small in scale, yet collectively they point to a gradual change in how goods are marketed and distributed across the region.

According to a March report by the Economic Daily, Xinjiang's livestreaming-enabled online retail sales more than tripled between 2021 and 2025, with the sector's contribution to the regional economy continuing to rise. By the end of 2025, the region was home to more than 279,600 online merchants. The Xinjiang Daily reported that the region's e-commerce market continued to grow in the first five months of 2026, with online retail sales rising 11.7 percent year-on-year.

Although some Western media continue to view Xinjiang through a biased lens, the expansion of e-commerce offers a more concrete picture of economic activity in the region. It points to a region that has developed an active position in livestreaming-based commerce, where new digital business models have taken root and remain embedded in trade.

On the one hand, this development supports the growth of Xinjiang's digital economy and the wider industrial chain that underpins it. On the other hand, it helps facilitate cross-border trade, drawing overseas merchants to operate in the region and adding momentum to commercial links between China and economies in Asia and Europe.

Xinjiang's cross-border e-commerce development rests on several layers of supporting infrastructure. First, the region has built a dense logistics network, anchored by multiple transport corridors that connect it to domestic and international markets. In particular, China-Europe freight train services have provided a steady channel for cross-border flows of goods, reinforcing the region's role in broader trade connectivity.

Second, there is scope for further trade expansion. According to a report on xinhuanet.com, trade in goods between China and Central Asian economies exceeded $100 billion in 2025 for the first time, with China now Central Asia's largest trading partner. This broader trade environment has helped support demand for cross-border platforms and related commercial services.

Third, the development of digital industries is adding another layer of support for e-commerce activity. Some parts of Xinjiang are rapidly emerging as new computing hubs thanks to their abundant renewable energy resources and a climate that helps reduce cooling costs and improve energy efficiency. According to a June 22 report by the Xinjiang Daily, the region has formed four major computing power clusters in Urumqi, Changji, Karamay and Hami, with intelligent computing capacity reaching nearly 30,000 petaflops.

Currently, Xinjiang is seeing a range of emerging opportunities, with cross-border e-commerce among them. A question increasingly worth asking is whether the region could develop into a regional hub for cross-border digital trade within the wider Eurasian space, as logistics networks, trade flows and digital infrastructure continue to evolve in parallel.

As cross-border e-commerce expands, it may become a more active channel through which regional trade is organized and facilitated. The recently concluded 9th China-Eurasia Expo, held in Urumqi from June 25 to 29, reflected this direction, with e-commerce among the areas discussed alongside energy, logistics and finance.

Like the Kazakh trader in Horgos, a growing number of merchants are being drawn to Xinjiang. For those following China-Eurasia trade, developments on the ground are becoming harder to ignore. The extent to which these opportunities are taken up in the coming years could, in turn, add further momentum to trade between China and economies in Eurasia.

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn