Experiencing Developmentalism: The State(s), Grassroots Traders and the E-Commerce Boom in a Chinese City

China's e-commerce boom has attracted global attention. Existing literature has attributed this development to state initiatives. By examining the interactions between the rising grassroots e-commerce sector and the Chinese state apparatus from the perspective of e-traders in the city of Yiwu, Zhejiang province, this study finds that the Chinese state at different levels has indeed made tremendous efforts to foster the e-commerce industry as a new economic growth engine. However, due to their high ambitions for and anticipation of quick success, coupled with local officials' bureaucratic management of development projects, their endeavours have largely failed to satisfy the needs of grassroots e-traders. Left to fend for themselves, the e-traders regard themselves as self-reliant entrepreneurs who had laid the cornerstone of Yiwu's local e-commerce economy. By taking advantage of the less-regulated business environment given the central state's tolerance and the local state's ignorance, e-traders venture into the uncertain yet profitable e-commerce market. Their entrepreneurial experiences not only lead to their full embrace of the market, but also shape their indifference or resistant attitude towards state intervention in the economy.