[Beijing Diary] China's Quiet Occupation

China's famous milk tea brand 'Heytea' recently appeared in New York's Times Square. The New York store, which opened on the 8th, sold 2,500 drinks on its first day alone. The most popular menu item, brown sugar milk tea topped with cheese foam, was priced at $9 (about 11,600 KRW). Considering that a Starbucks Americano costs around $4, it is quite an expensive price, but it was a successful debut. Heytea has been accelerating its overseas market expansion since August. The United States is the fifth country it has entered, following the UK, Canada, Australia, and Malaysia.

Although the atmosphere in the U.S. Congress is heated, seemingly ready to suppress almost every Chinese industry, citizens lined up in front of Heytea and posted 인증샷 (proof photos) on social media. A giant billboard was installed in Times Square. At this moment, supply chain separation, export controls, and high-level diplomatic disputes seem like matters for other countries.

People Lined Up in Front of the Heytea New York Store (Photo Source: Chinese Video Platform Bilibili)

China's covert approach in consumer goods, especially the food market, has been successfully advancing in recent years. The same applies to Korea. The popularity of well-known dishes like Malatang and Tanghulu goes without saying. Chinese snacks with unfamiliar appearances and flavors are spreading like a trend through new media content such as TikTok and YouTube.

Searching for 'Chinese snacks' on Korea's online marketplace Gmarket yields over 6,000 products. These include Mala-flavored chewy snacks (Latiao), seasoned squid, vacuum-packed chicken feet, and fruit-flavored jelly. It is said that in unmanned snack stores that have sprung up all over Korea, the shelf space for Chinese ice cream and snacks is gradually expanding. According to the Korea Customs Service, imports of Chinese ice cream, which were about 21 million KRW in total in 2016, have exceeded 1 billion KRW just from January to October this year.

The overseas market expansion by Chinese e-commerce companies, accelerating to counter domestic sluggishness, also supports this trend. According to the distribution industry, Alibaba Group's e-commerce platform AliExpress plans to establish a logistics center in Korea next year. The monthly active users (MAU) of AliExpress, which was about 2.27 million at the beginning of the year, surged to 5.04 million as of last month.

Temu, the shopping app of Pinduoduo, considered a rising star in the e-commerce market, has been aggressively marketing since entering Korea in July. According to big data analytics firm IGAWorks Marketing Cloud, Temu was the most newly installed app in Korea during the second half of this year (July to November), with 3.88 million installs. Using AliExpress and Temu as bases, inexpensive Chinese consumer goods will begin to flood into Korea in earnest. The same applies to the U.S. Temu and SHEIN have a combined user base of about 110 million in the U.S., which is 90% of Amazon's users.

This quiet takeover is concerning given that relations with China have deteriorated to what is considered the 'worst ever.' Consumers, unable to find alternatives, have set aside their unfavorable feelings amid recession and low growth. Although currently limited to miscellaneous items and cheap snacks, it is uncertain where China, obsessed with technological dominance, will plant its flag next.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.