A Political Economy Comparison of E-Commerce Logistics in Malaysia and China

Yong Yanjie

Zibo Polytechnic University

Abstract：

China and Malaysia are both emerging economic entities in Asia. In terms of e-commerce maturity, these two countries differ significantly. Chinese consumers in major cities receive parcels within hours or the next day after purchase, while Malaysian consumers have to wait at least a few days. This paper argues that this gap in logistics is not merely a technological or managerial difference, but a product of distinct political-economic configurations. Drawing on a comparative political economy framework of state-market-society relations, the paper analyzes how geographical conditions, state roles, market structures, and labor regimes interact to formulate different logistics systems. The comparison reveals that China's high-density geography, activist developmental state, hyper-competitive logistics market, and intensive labor regime enable the compression of delivery time to near-zero; Malaysia's archipelagic geography, regulatory rather than investment-driven state, market shaped by Chinese competition, and reliance on foreign labor with different cost structures generate a slower but evolving equilibrium. The paper contributes to the emerging political economy of logistics literature by demonstrating that infrastructure speed is fundamentally a political outcome, not a technical given.

Key Words：

logistics; e-commerce; political economy; China; Malaysia