Chinese exporters are hoping to appeal to local buyers with big discounts and steady patriotism, as they look to sell off goods previously meant for the United States.
Sellers of items from lunch boxes to appliances have taken to social media platform Rednote to generate sympathy purchases, telling domestic consumers they are offloading stock at bargain prices amid US tariffs.
Over the past week, dozens of sellers have broadcast livestreams showing goods produced for US customers, which they said they could no longer sell because of tariff rates of 145% for made-in-China goods imposed by President Donald Trump’s administration.
Also on AF: China Says it Will ‘Shake Hands Not Fists’ to Beat US Tariffs
In one livestream, user “Dingding Cloud Foreign Trade Warehouse” was seen selling small appliances, including rice cookers, juicers and toasters by telling viewers: “The US has breached its contract. No more shipments! Everything is on sale at 90% off!”
In another video, by user “Muzi Has Good Goods,” a host hawked appliances while surrounded by boxes marked “trade transit containers”, saying they had no more space in their warehouse because of orders they could no longer send to the US.
Some of the sellers sold items such as Costa Coffee mugs, but most were brands not widely known abroad, such as OSTMARS and APLX, which are sold on Amazon.
The push comes as China has declared that it will help Chinese exporters sell goods domestically, touting its giant, though of-late sluggish domestic consumer market, as an alternative to the US market after Trump’s tariffs.
JD.com and Alibaba-owned supermarket chain Freshippo have been among retailers and e-commerce platforms that have joined the push, with JD.com saying it would launch a 200 billion yuan ($27.35 billion) fund to help the country’s exporters to sell their products domestically over the next year.
Analysts told Reuters that the livestreams were in line with how China reacted to external pressure and that even if they were just marketing, it would be effective.
“In China, there is this sentiment that we need to come together and we need to resist US bullying,” said Ashley Dudarenok, founder of digital consultancy Chozan, adding that hashtags like “resist”, “China can make it” and “save factories” have all emerged in the wake of the newest outbreak of trade conflict between the world’s two largest economies.
“Somehow Trump tariffs might actually help China’s boost consumer sentiment, it will give people a very strong reason why they should consume … because it’s now bigger than just about themselves,” she said.
Expanding markets
Still, some sources involved in the export business said they were skeptical of the Rednote sales live-streams, describing them as pure marketing.
Exporters tended to have a variety of target markets and would shift focus to other countries if the United States were not an option, one Chinese exporter told Reuters.
That is, indeed, a popular opinion among Chinese exporters.
At the Canton Fair, China’s biggest trade expo, many exporters told Reuters they were either diversifying their production bases outside China, or the markets they sell to, away from the US.
Most exporters at the fair feared the US markets were “frozen” for them, with trade remaining tough as prices go up.
Others, however, like speaker maker Zealot, said they were considering other avenues. Zealot had an order from US footwear maker Skechers for 30,000 speakers to be distributed to their US stores. But the order was put on hold after Trump’s tariffs.
An executive from Zealot told Reuters, however, the company could still rely on markets such as Nigeria.
Zealot got a big and unexpected break in 2015, when an all-in-one speaker, power bank and emergency flashlight became a hit in Nigeria, now a market twice as big as the US.
“We are as big as JBL” in Nigeria, Du said, referring to the Californian audio equipment brand.
Similarly, Bin Zhang, owner of iFun — a company that sells a range of products needed to set up arcades and play areas — said he was confident of growing his business in spite of US tarffs.
Until recently, a fifth of iFun’s sales went to the United States, but Trump’s tariffs have forced Zhang’s US customers to put orders on hold.
Zhang said he was hopeful, like many Chinese business owners, that Trump will roll back the tariffs before the pain really hits China.
If that doesn’t happen, Zhang said he was still sure he could double his $17-million business in the next five years and sell in other markets.
Will the US-China trade war cool down?
Unfortunately for Zhang, and many Chinese exporters heavily dependent on sales to the US, the ongoing trade war has so far shown no signs of cooling.
On Monday, the White House noted in a fact sheet that China now faces cumulative tariffs of up to 245% on imports to the US. Beijing last week called those tariffs a ‘joke’.
Meanwhile, China has also made a range of retaliatory moves, including cutting off the exports of some critical heavy rare earths to the US and ordering its airlines to not take further deliveries of Boeing jets.
On Wednesday, Beijing-ruled Hong Kong’s postal service also said it had suspended mail services for goods sent by sea to ‘bully’ US.
China is also taking an increasingly aggressive stance on US, dropping any facade of dialogue on tariffs. A senior Chinese official on Tuesday said Trump’s tariffs would lead “peasants in the US” to soon “wail in front of the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization.”
The remark was a retort to US Vice President JD Vance, who said early this month that the US borrows and buys from “Chinese peasants”.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Chinese state media said the Trump Administration was “hoodwinking” US citizens by claiming America had been ripped off.
“The US is not getting ripped off by anybody. The problem is the US has been living beyond its means for decades… the US has been taking a free ride on the globalisation train,” the newspaper said in an editorial.
“The US should stop whining about itself being a victim in global trade,” it added.
- Reuters, with additional editing and inputs from Vishakha Saxena
Also read:
EU Rejects US Offer to Cut Tariffs if it Pulls Away From China
Trump Tariffs Could Hit US-Made Drugs in China, Data Shows
China Halts Rare Earth Exports, Warns US on Deep-Sea Metals ‘Plan’
China Calls For US to Scrap Its Tariffs as Xi Starts SE Asia Tour
How One YouTuber Defied The US-China Trade War
Can Trump Tariffs Deliver a Significant ‘Moment’ for Asia?
