They definitely need that. What I find fascinating on Aliexpress is that they can ship a product a whole world away, for the price it costs me to send a letter to my neighbour. They need a way to compete with the zero-margin (negative margin?) ChinaPost service.
It's the Universal Postal Union subsidies. The low prices aren't hurting ChinaPost. Your tax dollars in the receiving country are where the money comes from.
One funny side effect is that the subsidies don't work in the opposite direction. It's not uncommon for the postage cost for a return to significantly exceed the original cost of the item+shipping.
