Despite the bravado of the Chinese Communist Party’s official response to the Trump administration’s steep tariffs on China (the Chinese government will “fight to the end” with its counter-tariffs), the trade war is exacerbating problems with China’s society and economy that its government probably can’t ignore.
Empty buildings
Before the Trump 2 mega-tariffs came along, massive overbuilding and other misdirection of capital in China had led to a persistent economic slump. The Chinese government has been trying to revive the economy by the tried-and-untrue expedient of more government spending and credit expansion, i.e., more of the same bad policies that governments everywhere inflict to cure the effects of previous rounds of those bad policies.
Trump’s tariffs didn’t cause the problems, but they aren’t helping. According to video and reports posted at YouTube and yesterdayprotests.com (as Google-Translated):
Thousands of workers at Wuzhen Lighting Factory went on strike for days (2025.04.28-29)
A large-scale workers’ protest occurred in Wuzhen, Tongxiang City, Jiaxing, Zhejiang. More than a thousand workers of Shengdi Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd. went on strike for two consecutive days since April 28 because the company had long owed wages. They gathered in front of the factory and Wuzhen Town Government, demanding that the wages owed since January this year be paid as soon as possible.
According to many employees, Shengdi Optoelectronics has not paid wages for three consecutive months since the beginning of 2024. As the dissatisfaction of employees continued to accumulate, a large-scale strike finally broke out on April 28. The next day, the employees went to the Wuzhen government to protest collectively….
According to data from the Chinese enterprise information platform “Qichacha”, Shengdi Optoelectronics has been included in the list of “debtors” and the amount of the court judgment that has not been fulfilled is as high as RMB 16.8942 million [a little more than $2.3 million USD]. As of the afternoon of April 29, the employees have not received a clear response, and the salary payment time is still far away.
Radio Free Asia reports that workers yelling “Strike! Strike!” outside a Shangda Electronics factory in Suining claim that they haven’t been paid wages since January 2025 and haven’t been paid social security benefits since June 2023. On April 24, 2025, hundreds of workers at Guangxin Sports Goods went on strike for similar reasons. There are many other examples.
Protests by workers demanding back wages are spreading across China in a sign of growing discontent among millions suffering the brunt of factory closures, triggered by steep U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports amid an economic downturn.
Across the country—from Hunan province’s Dao county in central China to Sichuan’s Suining city in the southwest and Inner Mongolia’s Tongliao city to the northeast—hundreds of disgruntled workers have taken to the streets to protest about unpaid wages and to challenge unfair dismissals by factories that were forced to shut due to the U.S. tariffs….
Analysts at U.S.-based investment bank Goldman Sachs estimated that at least 16 million jobs, across industries, in China are at risk due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of a 145% tariff on Chinese imports.
President Trump says he’s been getting overtures from Chinese officials about renegotiating terms of trade. Chinese officials deny it.
The U.S. economy, too, has been suffering major tariff-related costs, but these don’t seem to be as traumatic as those afflicting the Chinese economy.
Exemptions
Both China and the U.S. have allowed some at least temporary exemptions from the tariffs. Apple, one of the beneficiaries of the U.S. reprieve, is reportedly accelerating its shift of production of the iPhone from China to India.
China has allowed tariff exemptions “on select products including select pharmaceuticals, microchips and aircraft engines and [asked] firms to identify critical goods they need levy-free.” Providing these exemptions “quietly” enables China to “maintain its public messaging” about how it will fight to the end while repeatedly not fighting to the end.
Also see:
StoptheCCP.org: “China’s Bold Stimulus Package Backs Losers, Reinforces Failure, Extends Losses”
StoptheCCP.org: “Is China’s Stock Market Even Worse Than a Casino?”
