There are increasingly European companies interested in e-commerce: it offers numerous advantages to the global industries, among which the efficiency and rapidity are only the first ones.

In fact there would be also the opportunity to take a further great advantage,  in terms of  lack of borders as well as of the capacity to limitless expanding: but this is not precisely how things are.

From what has been globally and previously said, China result to be an e-commerce giant: with related revenues amounting to 307 billions of Euro in 2013 and 440 in 2014, according to Forrester’s report.

However, at the European level, there is significant concern about the difficulties for foreign enterprises in exploiting the potential of China as well as in taking benefits on Chinese business, provided that enterprises do not circumvent the border crossing point of the Great Firewall.

The latter means not only what has been counted among the seven wonders of the world on 2007, but also the sovereign choice taken by the Communist Party of China (hereinafter, also the “Party”) to control the flow of information via web among the Country.

More specifically, an Internet system or, better, a national intranet network has been created with the possibility for users to share contents on blog, chat, listen to the music, purchase online ect. but only with the consent of the Party: Gmail, Yahoo, Intel and, more in general, and all that is not made in China, is prohibited.

Where that manoeuvre was applied only to Chinese enterprises, intended to operate on national territory only, it would not cause particular problems, with the exception of criticism by outsiders: the problem, however, is that it does apply also to Italian enterprises operating on Chinese territory.

The data processed by these Italian enterprises shall be stored in servers located on Chinese territory and the source codes shall be available to the Party. It is therefore obvious that the privacy is totally absent, in so far as the Government is able to access confidential data and also to monitor the transfer or the reception of these data from/to devices of others, even where located outside the Chinese territory.

The price to be paid for increasing privacy consists in the exclusion from China’s commercial network, such as walking without legs. This risk has been declared in a statement of the European Chamber of Commerce, in which it stressed the creation or, better, the unacceptable imposition of insurmountable barriers to entry in China’s business.

Jorg Wuttke, in his quality of Chairman of the Eu Chamber of Commerce, underlined that sovereignty on web applied by the Communist Party of China, will firstly strike out Chinese enterprises. It is clear that the deviation of data to all those tools or web platforms located on the Chinese territory will slow down the web browsing and, more in general, harms efficiency on web. This opinion has been shared also by start-up, who suffer from the overwork in so far as what should normally be at the speed of light, takes a few minutes more.

Hua Chunying, in her quality of spokeman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, defended China from these charges by quoting the data report released by ONU, according to which China on 2014 was considered to be the first destination for foreign investment.

The range of legal assistance to enterprises, involved in Chinese business, is in difficult to take position about the balance between needs to privacy and the potential of China in being the second economic power in the world.

These problems have also been observed in the light of marketing and communications: the Party blocks access from VPN stations (Virtual Private Network) to all those instruments that, for enterprises, look like power supplies of the proper start-upping, such as social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube.

The only way out this situation is actually the obedience to the aforementioned sovereign impositions, just as Apple did in January; however, it is incomprehensible why the foreign economic operator has to be foreclosed in spite of the richness of his production and investments on China.

Paola Perinu

BLB - Benedetti Lorusso Benedetti