China’s exporters are scrambling to find domestic buyers for their consumer goods as orders from the United States have dried up during an escalating trade war.
On Chinese social media platforms, exporters joined the domestic direct-to-consumer livestream market, attempting to offload products that were initially meant for foreign customers. Some factories have slowed or halted production.
A raft of China’s e-commerce giants launched plans to help exporters pivot toward domestic markets, but some experts say China’s domestic consumers won’t be able to fill the gap.
If the trade war persists, “the damage to the Chinese economy will be far greater than the impact to the U.S. economy,” U.S.-based China affairs commentator Wang He told The Epoch Times.