As the two largest economies in the world, the United States and China, continue to shoot on tariffs, the growing commercial war is stimulating some Americans to favor Chinese products in a way they never did before.
President Donald Trump said his radical tariffs worldwide aim to bring the manufacture of return to the US coast. But as China continues to attack with its highest rate so far, now with 145%, some Americans online say they are going mass to Chinese manufacturing instead of far from it.
“What do you think US companies will do? We are going to pay their prices instead of Chinese prices, when I can get a thousand times more products for the same price we get here?” A Tiktok user said in a video that he obtained more than 16.5 million visits. “We are not going to do that.”
Since Friday, Videos about Tiktok of Chinese manufacturers have drawn millions of opinions promoting a wide variety of products, including some that make questionable statements about their roles in the production of high -price luxury items that say they are made in Europe. Others promote dupes, or replicas, of common brand items that say they are of the same quality or similar.
The videos occur when the United States imposes high rates for China and plans to close a commercial escape, called Minimis, which allows shipments of less than $ 800 to enter the country without taxes. The national and international discontent on Trump’s commercial policy has spread to the Internet, where artificial intelligence videos that seem to show Americans who work in factories and have flourished several other memes.
Much of the content is emerging in Tiktok, even when it faces an uncertain future in the United States. After having emerged as the most popular Chinese property application of Chinese property, it could be prohibited if your parent company based in Beijing does not disinceate property before June 15.
Tony Wu, founder of the Tlucky Sourcing family business, works behind the scene with several popular supply accounts of Chinese factories in Tiktok. He said the accounts are using global social networks platforms to announce several Chinese suppliers to buyers, either from the United States or elsewhere.
The tariffs “do some problems, sure, but in two or three months he will return to normal, I think,” said Wu, who connects with factories to find retail and individual buyers abroad. “We will find new buyers. And [Americans] It cannot replace the China factory. Finally, I think they will realize that they need to buy in China. … there are no alternatives. ”
Americans represent only about 5% of buyers for the factories they work with, he said, and those factories have much larger export markets in South Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Until now, WU said, American buyers do not cancel orders, but are opting for smaller orders or try to negotiate prices.
“Honestly, the United States is not our main market. Tiktok is based in the United States, it does not mean that our clients are mainly from the United States,” he said. He said that while he believes that Trump rates will not be harmful to Chinese exports, manufacturers are nervous about the pure unpredictability of their commercial policies.
Many of the videos said that Chinese suppliers behind popular brands sell the same or similar pieces at much cheaper prices.
“They sell you legs for $ 100, and guess what? Here in these two factories, you can get them for around $ 5 to $ 6,” said @lunasourcingchina, an account that works with Wu’s supply business, he said in a video that obtained more than 11 million views on Tiktok. “And what is even better, material and crafts are basically the same because all come from the same production line.”
A Lululemon spokesman, one of the brands mentioned in the video, said that “it does not work with the manufacturers identified in the online videos and urged consumers to be aware of the potentially counterfeit products and erroneous information.”
Another Tiktok account that won a traction this week, @senbags2, said that his factory has been the original team manufacturer, or OEM, during most luxury bags in the world for more than 30 years. He said that when making bags discreetly in China before being sent to Europe for the final touches, “the bags will appear in their boutiques as” made in Italy “or” made in France. ”
In a video that caused a great online debate, he said that a Birkin Birkin bag of $ 38,000 costs around $ 1,400 to win in a Chinese factory using the same high quality materials. Hermes is known for making his Birkin bags exclusively in France, dedicating a single craftsman to each bag.
A Hermes spokesman did not respond to a request for comments.
Even as many online remained skeptics about the statements made in the videos of trends, the speech has asked questions about the true material value of Western brand goods.
The deception of Chinese manufacturing luxury brands have been popular among American consumers for years, often sold by street vendors and in Chinese electronic commerce sites such as DHGate, but for a long time they have taken a stigma of being perceived as of low quality. However, what the recent videos of Chinese manufacturers intend is that imitations are the same in everything but the value of their names.
As viral videos invite buyers abroad to buy directly from Chinese warehouses instead of paying the best prices for the logos of the western brand, they generated a buckwater of shock and joy among the Americans who say they are looking to buy cheaper wholesale products that could save them enough money to compensate Trump’s rates on China.
In response to tariffs, some online have been pointing out that much of Trump’s own merchandise “Make America Great Again” is also done in China. Others have pointed out that for most things they consume, for example, a mandarin from Florida, transfer complete production processes to the United States would be very inefficient and expensive.
Among those who call the Maga Merch, is a Chinese journalist who shared a video last weekend showing that inside the Trump tower store in New York City, the price stickers seemed to be placed in a way that covered the label “Made in China” on various products. Although his video made waves in China, a visit to the NBC News store found nothing that seemed to be trying to obfuscate its origins.
Zhang Zhisheng, China’s general consul in Denpasar, Indonesia, also accused the White House Secretary, Karoline Leavitt to wear a dress made by the Chinese, writing on X: “Accusing China is a business. Buying China is life.”
Many people online seem not convinced by the Chinese imitations of their favorite brands. But as this content circulates on Chinese and American social media platforms alike, some users, including Americans, are making fun of Trump tariffs as fears of a commercial war that is potentially more disadvantageous for the United States than for China.
