Only days after Premier Xi Jinping announced his party's $900bn 'Belt and Road' initiative, Lidl is nearing completion of an online shop in the People's Republic. Like arch-rival Aldi, the German discount giant has chosen Alibaba's Tmall Global as its B2C platform.Although even the soft launch won't be until the end of May, the site can already be seen under https://lidl.tmall.hk/. Customers will initially be able to choose from around 60 food lines. These dry goods include breakfast products, such as Maribel raspberry jam or Crownfield granola, as well as pasta and cooking ingredients such as Balsamic vinegar.The offer is essentially own label. Unlike Aldi, who imports from Australia, Lidl is sourcing directly from Germany via its buying subsidiary in Hong Kong. So what else is new?