Chinese accounts continue to ridicule Donald Trump‘s radical tariff policy with memes poking fun at the president’s haphazard bid to encourage American business.
AI-generated video circulated on TikTok and Chinese app Douyin depicts Trump and Vice President JD Vance stitching MAGA hats in a sweatshop.
‘Factories are being located to the United States,’ read the overlay in Mandarin, next to three laughing emojis.
Another showed a man resembling the president running away from the White House, surrounded by debris as a fighter jet came crashing down.
One particularly striking image, reminiscent of old political cartoons, depicted China as a panda in People’s Liberation Arm military fatigues slashing a bald eagle with a knife.
Chinese accounts have been promoting video and photos ridiculing the so-called ‘US Manufacturing Revival Plan’ since Trump centred his tariffs on Chinese exports.
While Trump mostly climbed down from his raft of tariffs, lowering duties for most nations to a baseline 10% tariff for 90 days, Chinese rates have only increased.
The White House clarified yesterday that China was now subject to a 145% rate – 125% in new levies, compounding a 20% rate already in place.
China’s Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council said today: ‘Even if the U.S. continues to impose higher tariffs, it will no longer make economic sense and will become a joke in the history of world economy.’
Outraged by the tariff impositions, Chinese premier Xi Jinping urged the European Union to stand up to Trump’s ‘unilateral bullying’ as Beijing raised its tariffs on U.S. goods to 125%, adding it would ‘ignore’ any further U.S. increases.
Another recent AI video was published depicting Trump making MAGA hats in a factory
JD Vance also came into the sights of Chinese accounts producing AI-generated content
A figure resembling Trump flees the White House as a fighter jet crashes in another AI clip
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speak after a meeting in Beijing, China, Friday, April 11
The new duties are a significant climb from the 84% announced on Wednesday, rising to meet the current U.S. tariffs imposed on Chinese goods.
But China’s tariff hike only moves in line with Trump’s latest raft of duties; Washington said yesterday the 125% announced Wednesday compounded an existing 20%.
Beijing has expressed outrage and incredulity over tariffs affecting the price of Chinese goods bound for the U.S.
Mao Ning, spokesperson for the foreign ministry, yesterday shared an AI-generated meme of a MAGA hat labelled ‘made in China’, with the price raised from $50 to $77 to poke at the self-inflicted pains of the tariffs to be felt by U.S. consumers.
AI has found a surprising role in illustrating the absurdity of the trade war.
Chinese accounts on social media continue to share AI-generated videos of administration officials and ordinary Americans working in Chinese-style sweatshops – a slight on Trump’s pledge to leverage tariffs to encourage manufacturing in the U.S.
One video circulating this week showed Trump, Elon Musk and JD Vance working on a production line making trainers.
A graphic AI-generated image contained symbolism of a (Chinese) panda slashing an (American) bald eagle
Another AI generated video showed a Trump-like figure on a trading floor being pummeled
The video is one of many shared on Chinese accounts ridiculing Trump’s trade war
Concerns mount that should the economic stand-off with China continue, consumer goods like the Nike shoes featured in the viral video could skyrocket in price.
At the moment, 62 per cent of the shoes sold in the United States are imported from China, with other nations like Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and India providing the rest. Just one per cent of shoes are produced domestically.
Other AI-generated content related to the trade war has gone viral on TikTok, Weibo, Douyin, X and Reddit.
One popular video portrayed a glum picture of life in a re-industrialised America, with obese factory workers stitching cheap clothes.
The 32-second clip focuses on the stereotypical manufacturing jobs that have moved overseas in the last few decades.
The Americans look sluggish and tired by the work as they sew clothes with old-fashioned machines.
An absurd creation showed a figure resembling Trump on a trading floor being slapped by a woman in traditional Chinese dress.
Meanwhile, Beijing Business Daily shared an AI-generated meme of a penguin wearing a red ‘Make America Go Away’ baseball caps in a news segment shared to Weibo.
A video included alongside the story included a penguin with a speech bubble saying, in Mandarin: ‘We have to pay taxes too?’
‘Behind the memes lies a deeper absurdity.’
‘Ever since I had the sun, I fell in love with manufacturing’ reads a caption poking at the policy
Mao Ning shared an AI-generated image depicting MAGA hats priced up amid the trade war
AI generated video shared on TikTok portrayed Americans making phones in factories
Chinese social media has continued to mock Americans over Trump’s push to strengthen domestic manufacturing through a raft of tariffs
Chinese state media outlet CGTN took a different approach, publishing a 2-minute 42-second music video titled, ‘Look What You Taxed Us Through (An AI-Generated Song. A Life-Choking Reality)’.
The AI-generated song reeled off: ‘”Liberation Day,” you promised us the stars. But tariffs killed our cheap Chinese cars.’
Lyrics transcribed in English and Chinese appeared to bash the tariffs from the perspective of the American consumer.
The outlet added: ‘For many Americans, “Liberation Day” hailed by Trump administration will mean shrinking paychecks and rising costs.
‘Tariffs hit, wallets quit: low-income families take the hardest blow. As the market holds its breath, the toll is already undeniable.
‘Numbers don’t lie. Neither does the cost of this so-called “fairness”.’
‘Warning: Track is AI-generated. The debt crisis? 100 percent human-made.’
China is a key trading partner with a large manufacturing industry, producing huge quantities of inexpensive goods for American consumers.
Trump’s tariffs come at a difficult time for China’s economy, with firms now scrambling to adjust their supply chains and officials concerned that any profits made selling goods to the US will be completely wiped out.
In Shanxi, China, jewelry stores raised large red banners announcing that American customers would face 104 per cent ‘service fees’ in store.
The Zhangji BBQ Beef Offal Restaurant in Wuhan lifted similar banners, local media reports.
A viral TikTok meme using AI-generated ‘Americans’ mocked the US government’s desire to bring manufacturing jobs back to American soil
A recent Chinese report parodied the American tariffs on uninhabited islands near Antarctica. A video included alongside the story included a penguin with a speech bubble saying, in Mandarin: ‘We have to pay taxes too?’
One AI-generated clip circulating online depicts Trump, senior adviser Elon Musk and JD Vance working on a production line
At the moment, 62 per cent of the shoes sold in the United States are imported from China
Meeting with Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez on Friday, Xi Jinping urged cooperation with China to resist what he called ‘unilateral bullying’ from the U.S.
The three-month reprieve on hefty tariffs against 57 countries announced this week followed ‘pressure from China’, Beijing said in a show of goodwill.
‘China and Europe should fulfil their international responsibilities… and jointly resist unilateral bullying practices,’ Xi said.
This, he stressed, would not only ‘safeguard their own legitimate rights and interests, but also… safeguard international fairness and justice.’
Sanchez, in turn, told a press conference following his meeting with Xi that tensions over trade should not impede cooperation between the European Union and China.
Spain buys about 45 billion euros ($49.1 billion) of goods every year from China, its fourth-largest trading partner, but sells around 7.4 billion euros’ worth.
‘Both Spain and Europe have a significant trade deficit with China that we must work to rectify,’ he admitted.
But, he said, ‘we must not let trade tensions stand in the way of the potential growth of the relationship between China and Spain and between China and the EU’.
Sanchez’s trip comes as the European Union rethinks its global trading relationships in the face of turmoil caused by the US import duties announced last week that have sent world markets into a tailspin.
Jewelry stores in Shanxi announced a 104 per cent service fee on American customers
The service fees came as the U.S. announced hefty tariffs on Chinese imports
In another AI-generated video, lyrics parody the effects of the trade war on the US consumer
Chinese state media outlet CGTN published a 2-minute 42-second music video titled, ‘Look What You Taxed Us Through’
While Europe has benefitted from Trump’s scaling back on tariffs – now subject to a 10% levy on exports to the U.S. – leaders warn against complacency.
Emmanuel Macron today urged Europe to ‘mobilise’ its leverage to protect itself against what he called the ‘unfair’ tariffs.
The French president insisted that ‘Europe must continue to work on all the necessary counter-measures’, assessing the ‘fragile’ pause as ’90 days of uncertainty for all our businesses, on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond’.
‘We are right to fight: jobs and the lives of our countries are at stake.’
Macron maintained willingness to negotiate, relaying the European Commission’s objective to be ‘to negotiate to remove these unfair tariffs and obtain a balanced agreement, without asymmetries’.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .