Chinese social media accounts are leaning into Beijing’s trade war with the US by putting out AI-generated posts of Americans clocking in for factory jobs — including one showing President Trump and Elon Musk on the production line for fresh pairs of Nike sneakers.
Videos and memes boosted by Chinese media and posted by government officials are mocking Trump’s “Make America Great Again” moniker while displaying the expected higher price of goods either made in US-based facilities or imported there under punishing 125% tariffs.
Trump and Musk are sitting side by side wearing blue jumpsuits and working on the Nike shoes, while Vice President JD Vance pieces together an iPhone, sporting denim and a red hat conspicuously missing its MAGA letters, according to a compilation of the AI videos from a Chinese TV station’s account.
Another AI-produced post from Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning displayed red MAGA hats with a “Made in China” tag — and priced at $17 more than their previous listing.
Ning, whom Chinese state media outlets have described as former Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong’s “cousin,” also shot back at Trump’s 104% tariffs on Beijing that went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday: “We are Chinese. We are not afraid of provocations. We don’t back down.”
Other AI-powered memes shared by Beijing Business Daily mocked Trump’s imposition of tariffs on the uninhabited Heard and McDonald Islands by putting the penguins who reside there in “Make America Go Away” red baseball caps, the Daily Mail reported.
Chinese government-owned media outlet CGTN also posted a music video of an AI-produced song “Look What You Taxed Us Through,” after the Taylor Swift number “Look What You Made Me Do,” according to the outlet.
The trolling videos and memes have since been reposted and racked up millions of views across TikTok, X and other platforms — including on ousted MSNBC host Joy Reid’s Instagram account.
A mega-viral post shared by TikTok user Ben Lau — which mockingly declared “Make America Great Again” — played traditional Chinese music and showed rows of obese Americans sweating while hunched over sewing machines stitching together shirts and brassieres or screwing together mobile phones.
Trump, 78, paused all other “reciprocal” tariffs on US trading partners Wednesday for 90 days in response to massive Treasury bond market selloffs — while keeping baseline 10% global import levies in place — but has since threatened even higher duties on China.
The president hit Beijing with 125% tariffs — which, when coupled with another 20% “fentanyl tariff” from earlier this year, means total duties of 145% are on many imported goods from China.
US markets rallied following the pause announcement by Trump, with shares of the S&P 500 and Nasdaq notching their best gains in decades on Wednesday before dipping down again on Thursday as investors grappled with the extent of the trade war with China.
“We are doing really well on our TARIFF POLICY. Very exciting for America, and the World!!! It is moving along quickly,” Trump posted on his Truth Social Friday morning.
America buys more from China than any other nation except Mexico, even after Trump’s first term trade actions moved some production to neighboring nations like Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia and India — all of which were recently spared from higher tariff rates.
Vietnam is the largest manufacturer of Nike shoes globally — and nearly a third of all shoe imports to the US came from the nation in 2023, according to the trade group Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, even as most footwear still comes to the US from China.
Many large American companies also aren’t yet announcing a shift in their production centers back home, as China remains its largest trading partner for electronics, footwear, textiles and apparel, according to the most recent data from the US International Trade Commission.
Last year, the US traded $582.4 billion worth of goods with China in 2024, with $143.5 billion in exports and $438.9 billion in imports, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative, amounting to a trade deficit of $295.4 billion.
China’s Commerce Ministry has vowed to “fight to the end” against the new tariffs.
“The countermeasures China has taken are aimed at safeguarding its sovereignty, security and development interests, and maintaining the normal international trade order. They are completely legitimate,” the ministry said in a statement Thursday.
“The US threat to escalate tariffs on China is a mistake on top of a mistake and once again exposes the blackmailing nature of the US. China will never accept this. If the US insists on its own way, China will fight to the end.”
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