Protests erupted in China late last month after factories were shut down due to President Donald Trump’s 145% tariff on the country.
Factory workers took to the streets in Suining, a city in the eastern Sichuan province, demanding back pay and claiming that the electronics factory where they work has not paid them since the beginning of the year, according to Radio Free Asia. Hundreds of workers at Guangxin Sports Goods in the Hunan Province also went on strike after the factory was closed. The company reportedly did not pay the workers their wages or Social Security benefits before shuttering the factory. Meanwhile, construction workers in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of northern China, threatened to jump off a building if they were not paid their overdue wages, the outlet reported.
Chinese manufacturing is struggling as the country’s government pushes back on Trump’s tariff. According to China’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, new orders for export were at their lowest level since the COVID pandemic, and manufacturing jobs were at their lowest level since February 2024, The New York Times reported. China’s National Bureau of Statistics said the concerning decline was due to “sharp changes in the external environment,” adding that there are “no winners in trade wars,” according to the Financial Times.
Goldman Sachs estimates that around 16 million jobs in many Chinese industries are at risk due to Trump’s tariff, the New York Post reported. China quietly moved to help ease the pain of the tariff on its economy last week, exempting around $40 billion worth of U.S. imports from its 125% retaliatory tariff on American goods.
While Trump and his administration officials continue to say they are speaking to the Chinese government behind the scenes, there has still been no formal meeting for trade talks between the two countries. The president told NBC’s “Meet the Press” over the weekend that he would “lower” the tariff on China “at some point,” adding that “they want to do business very much.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said last week that the trade war is “not sustainable on the Chinese side” and the Chinese economy is already “slowing down substantially.” Bessent suggested that the communist government would soon give in to trade talks.
China’s Commerce Ministry said that it is “evaluating” the United States’ offer to sit down for negotiations, but added that the country will only engage if the Trump administration ends its tariff on Chinese goods.
