Tariffs don’t budge the numbers but seem to rattle everyone else. Chinese PMIs stay oddly stable

If you've ever wanted evidence that Chinese data are completely made up, now's a good time for that view. The US imposed huge additional tariffs on China early this year. But China's GDP growth (black) is rock-solid and the PMIs also look suspiciously stable. This is fiction… pic.twitter.com/XLBC5GSgpC

— Robin Brooks (@robin_j_brooks) August 10, 2025