How are China's exporters/factory workers affected by the tariffs 🫠 | Following the Yuan

“A speck of dust from the times, when it falls on an individual, becomes a mountain," author Fang Fang.

Editor’s note: Welcome to “China color” — a column that records Chinese people’s unfiltered, original voices and my field trips.

Often, I find there isn’t enough color and perspective from Chinese consumers in English — the distinctive details, thoughts and emotions that reflect the complexity of life in China. This past week, while news headlines are dominated by US and China’s reactions to each other’s seemingly never-ending tariff announcements, the humans are overlooked.

For this issue, I want to turn the lens to the people whose lives have been greatly affected. From 10%, 20% to 104% and 125%, the category tariffs, and the duty-free de minimis* being eliminated, Chinese exporters and factories are having a rough couple of weeks — orders halted or retracted, layoffs affecting themselves or relatives, many now pondering about new life directions in the economic slowdown.

As I wrote in the last issue, I have full confidence that the Chinese business community and its people can find a way out. Ironically, given the volatile domestic political environment over the last few decades, they have been trained to be resilient and opportunistic, and some of that comes through in the texts below.

[P.S. 1. The de minimis rule, or commonly referred by cross-border professionals as T86, stated that shippers do not have to pay duties or taxes if the value of imported goods are under $800 threshold. The executive order would be effective on May 2. 2. I’ve only used RedNote posts as it’s the one where content has longer shelf life in China, a cursory search on Douyin for “factory shutters + tariff” only yielded comments about how bad tariffs are affecting Taiwan and the US economy for propaganda purpose.]

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1. Layoff: My mom got laid off as a factory worker

Post by a female staff member at an export company in Guangdong:

Comments:

2. Orders halted: ‘104% tariff. My American client: “this is not sustainable for the world”’

Post by an exporter featuring chat history with their US client:

Screenshot left: client; right: export business employee

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3. My U.S. client already came yelling

Post by a professional in cross-border e-commerce based in Australia:

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4. Bankrupty: The sky is falling... My company went under

Post by a employee who just got laid off at a cross-border e-commerce company:

Left: the company notices that lays off employees; Right: thank you gift for employees

“Who understands? I’ve been working at this company for almost four years, thinking I’d be here until retirement… But then, I received the news — the company had to close down due to 🇺🇸 tariffs! Our boss was truly amazing. He treated all of us like friends. Not only did he pay us our full month’s salary, but he also prepared personal farewell gifts for everyone. I’m so moved 🥹

No fake marketing here, just sharing my personal dramatic experience. I didn’t expect so many others are in the same situation. Please, don't misjudge based on this.”

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5. Cost keeps ramping up: Real-time tariff 150k [the author later commented that it’s become 180k with 125% tariff]

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With translation help from Rongrong Zhuge, RedNote and ChatGPT.