Ryan Knudson

In a year when China's biggest customer, the U.S., put up massive tariffs, China exported more to the world than ever before.

And its trade surplus passed a trillion dollars for the first time.

For Chinese e-commerce companies, Europe offered a lot of the same things the U.S.

used to — consumers with money to spend and its own de minimis regulation that allowed Chinese companies to import low-priced goods largely free of customs fees.

But accessing the Chinese market meant a huge shift in these companies' supply chains.

Chinese businesses have had to prop up a whole new logistics network practically overnight.

Along these new trade routes, all kinds of small businesses are cashing in.

It's such a vast trade network, spanning China to Europe, that it's even being described as a new Silk Road.

So these Chinese companies see Europe as a very attractive market to sell their goods.

How do they go about actually setting up the logistics to make this happen?

Along the New Silk Road, there are businesses that have taken advantage of this pivot to Europe.

One that's been quite successful is called My Freighter.

Companies like MyFrader help get cheap Chinese goods to Europe.

Once they actually get there, Shein and T-Move built up massive warehousing networks across the continent to stockpile their inventory.

But demand for Chinese goods has risen so fast that there's been another kind of warehouse business popping up too.

This has all been great for the Chinese e-commerce giants and the businesses along their trade routes.

But like with those protests outside Xi'an, there's also been controversy.

And there was even a scandal involving a sex doll.

That's next.

As Chinese companies started flooding the European market with cheap goods, retailers, who are some of the largest employers there, started to worry.