Chinese manufacturers are leveraging TikTok and other social media platforms to directly engage American consumers, offering luxury goods at significantly lower prices than established brands. This strategy appears to be resonating with American shoppers, particularly amid concerns about rising tariffs on Chinese imports.
The videos highlight the cost savings and often falsely claim that the products are made in the same factories as name-brand items. American influencers are promoting these videos, furthering their reach and driving downloads of Chinese shopping apps such as DHGate and Taobao.
The campaign is gaining substantial traction, accumulating millions of views and likes, and eliciting comments expressing sympathy for China. Some comments even suggest that China has “won” the trade war with the US.
This direct marketing approach provides a unique communication channel for Chinese factory owners to engage American consumers directly. Experts note the parallel between this campaign and previous debates over banning social media platforms like TikTok, highlighting the potential for these platforms to influence public opinion on political and economic matters. This demonstrates China's growing ability to connect with American consumers to push specific narratives about trade dependence.
Chinese manufacturers are flooding TikTok and other social media apps with direct appeals to American shoppers, urging people to buy luxury items straight from their factories. And amid the threats of sky-high tariffs on Chinese exports, Americans seem to be all in.
The pitch in the videos is that people can buy leggings and handbags exactly like those from brands like Lululemon, Hermes and Birkenstock, but for a fraction of the price. They claim, often falsely, that the products are made in the same factories that produce items for those brands.
American influencers have embraced the videos, promoting the factories and driving downloads of Chinese shopping apps like DHGate and Taobao as a way for shoppers to save money if the price of goods skyrockets under President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports. DHGate was among the 10 most downloaded apps in Apple’s and Google’s app stores last week.
The videos are surging in popularity on TikTok and Instagram, racking up millions of views and thousands of likes. Many of the posts also seem to have elicited Americans’ sympathy for China in comments, such as “Trump bullied the wrong country” and “China won this war.”
The videos offer a rare outlet for Chinese factory owners and workers to speak directly to American consumers through social media apps that are technically banned in China. And their popularity in America highlights increasingly vocal support for China on social media, similar to the outcry over the federal government’s potential ban of TikTok.
“It’s activating people politically in a similar way that you saw when we were going to cancel TikTok, but this time in the context of tariffs and the overall relationship with the two countries,” said Matt Pearl, a director who focuses on technology issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “It does demonstrate their ability to communicate with American consumers to drive a message about our dependence on Chinese goods.”
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