President Donald Trump hopes to equalize the U.S.’s incredible trade imbalance with China by imposing hefty 145% tariffs on some of its imports into America.
Still, China isn’t taking the hit lying down; it seems the country has activated a battalion of Chinese influencers to fight back. Over the weekend, while Chinese officials claimed that Trump’s tariffs won’t create an economic crisis, an army of TikTok influencers began posting tutorials on bypassing the tariffs and other informative videos.
One TikTok user, @gonest_lily, posted a video claiming people could use a “safe” and “legal” method to continue utilizing Chinese manufacturers and still gain profits under the massive 145% U.S. tariff. Just become a personal shopper and lie to U.S. Customs and Border Protection!
“Personal shopping service. You can travel to China, act as an agent to purchase products for your American friends and clients, and then avoid the tariff by declaring them as personal items when you return to the U.S., thus earning a high-profit margin,” she said, adding that she is a “Chinese freight forwarding agent.”
@gonest_lily How to Buy from China & Calculate Shipping Costs in Seconds! 🛒💸 #ShippingHacks #ChinaImports #savemoney #Gonest ♬ original sound – Lily-China Freight Forwarding
What she is describing is customs fraud, by the way.
Another Chinese TikTok account, @senbags2, claims to be exposing the luxury accessory market. Still, he spends the entire video promoting Chinese manufacturing as having the world’s best quality control, craftsmanship, and complete supply chain.
“Now, as the USA and its little European brothers are trying to refuse Chinese goods, don’t you think luxury brands are not trying to move their OEM (original equipment manufacturer) out of China? Yes, they did. But they failed because the OEM factories out of China, they don’t have good quality control, and they don’t have good craftsmanship. Their workers are either too expensive or too lazy,” he said. “They don’t have any supply chain. They always have trouble getting leather or zippers or any accessories. That is why they failed. And that is why we will always be the best OEM factory for luxury brands.” (Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!)
“Why don’t you just contact us and buy from us? You won’t believe the prices we give you,” he adds.
It seems evident to anyone who isn’t obsessed with TikTok (a Chinese social media company) that China would use the app to help push pro-Chinese propaganda videos, especially as the tariff war heats up. In the same way that it created a panic over the U.S. government’s plan to ban TikTok in the U.S., China is attempting to develop a supply chain mania among its users.
I’ve never supported the bill that banned TikTok, not because I use the app (I don’t) but because the authority it gave the president and the federal government was too broad. However, I would support a simple ban on TikTok because it is Chinese spyware and also a mechanism for China to push its anti-American propaganda on our citizens. They want to destroy American brands and/or end the tariffs.
Trump doing some narrowly tailored reciprocal tariff clawbacks.https://t.co/9XVA5JgRVH
I see no word on this clawing back de minimis, the end of which with Red China is honestly the most important thing going on right now.
— Neil Stevens 🇺🇲 (@presjpolk) April 14, 2025
If Covid taught our country anything, it’s that our supply chain and manufacturing base were critically weak. We cannot depend on one of our greatest adversaries for essential goods and still pretend to have strong national security. (Trump Has The Perfect Opportunity To Fix One Of Biden’s Biggest Failures)
Still, if China is desperately sending an army of TikTokers out to push pro-Chinese manufacturing propaganda, it means their claims that “the sky won’t fall” due to Trump’s tariffs is an obvious lie. They are worried. We shouldn’t let up.
Follow Mary Rooke on X: @MaryRooke_
Sign up for Mary Rooke’s weekly newsletter here!
