Chinese luxury factories offer U.S. shoppers to ‘buy direct’

"Chinese factories are [attempting to side step President] Donald Trump’s attempts to punish Beijing with tariffs by encouraging American shoppers to buy direct from "the world’s factory" at knockdown prices.

In videos posted by Chinese accounts on TikTok, users claim that fashion brands such as Lululemon are making products for as little as $6 (£4.55) in the country’s factories and then selling them on to US consumers for $100.

"This is why people come to China," said factory sourcing "expert" LunaSourcingChina. "Because they can get the cheapest and best quality product from there and sell it to you for I don’t know how much."

In a separate video, a Chinese supplier selling luxury handbags said: "Why don’t you just contact us and buy from us? You won’t believe the prices we give you."

Other users copied and pasted a message over their videos telling their followers "to please go look up your favourite brand and China warehouse on TikTok", adding: "They are really fighting back."

In one video, which was liked more than 150,000 times, another "factory sourcing expert" was asked whether stick-on nails would ever be made in the US.
"This is not ever going to be made in the US - ever," she said.

The videos have started to emerge just days after the US president stepped up his trade war against China, increasing tariffs on imports from the country to 145pc.

Mr Trump has claimed he is seeking to force more production back to the US, saying on Sunday: "What has been exposed is that we need to make products in the United States, and that we will not be held hostage by other countries, especially hostile trading nations like China, which will do everything within its power to disrespect the American people."

Currently, the US produces around 2pc of the clothes sold in its own country.

It has already prompted ridicule from Chinese social media users, who earlier this month posted an AI-generated video showing overweight Americans working in factories.

The video, called "make America great again", has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

The backlash on social media has come amid growing tensions between the two countries over manufacturing. Earlier this month US vice-president JD Vance called Chinese suppliers "peasants", saying: "To make it a little more crystal clear, we borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture."

China is a major exporter of textiles. It produces around two thirds of the world’s clothes. The US is the largest market for exports from China, with the country sending around $49bn worth of textiles to America last year.

While large American brands have been starting to diversify their production away from relying solely on China – also sourcing from factories in Vietnam and Indonesia – it remains a crucial supply base for many companies.

Nike, for example, sources around 18pc of its footwear from China. Its share price has slumped around a third since the end of February, when the US president began stepping up his attacks on Beijing.

H&M sources most of its clothes from China and Bangladesh. Its shares are down around 11pc over the past two months.

Fashion companies have already warned the tariffs will push prices up."

For the full article, visit The Telegraph.