Source: Blog – Alliance for American Manufacturing

“I guess most of you know the price of Lulu Lemon or other big brands. They sell you a legging pants for up to a hundred dollars, and guess what? Here, in these two factories, you can get them for around five to six bucks,” @lunasourcingchina tells her TikTok audience. Screenshot from @lunasourcingchina on TikTok

These videos conceal the hidden costs of buying Made in China.

TikTok inspires serious skepticism at the Alliance for American Manufacturing. After all, senators have revealed that the social media app that’s under the Chinese Communist Party’s thumb can spy on Americans through their devices’ microphones in addition to mining copious personal data. But a new trend on the social media app deserves its own “bombastic side eye.” Chinese Manufacturing TikTok is taking off as a new trend with millions of views. And it’s laying the perfect trap for American consumers. 

In case the algorithm hasn’t served you one of these viral videos yet, here’s how they usually go. An energetic spokesperson at a clean, well-lit Chinese factory speaks directly to the viewer with thousand-dollar prices slashed across the screen as they tell you that Western brands have been cheating you and the best way to cut costs is to buy directly from Chinese manufacturers.

One of the most popular #ChineseManufacturingTok videos comes from a user named @wangsen, who stands behind a leather office chair before a bevy of luxury brand handbags and more than a little evokes Morpheus of “The Matrix” when he intimates:

“You have been misled and poisoned by the marketing campaign by the luxury brands for too long. Welcome to the real world. Now you see those bags are made in China by our intelligent and diligent Chinese artisans. Let’s not be poisoned and misled by the market campaign any longer, and be a real person. Buy a bag from our factory in China and see the real world for yourself.”

And, rabid consumers that we are, Americans are eating these videos up. It’s no coincidence that Chinese e-commerce platform DHgate is the second-most downloaded iPhone app right now, coming just behind ChatGPT. Taoboa, another rising Chinese e-commerce platform, is currently the seventh-most downloaded app.

Bargain basement deals, secret knowledge, and luxury goods: it’s an irresistible combo that targets U.S. consumers just as tariff panic is at an all-time high.

What makes these videos so dangerous, though, is not just that they entice Americans to buy from potentially fraudulent sellers that offer no consumer protections.

Chinese manufacturers are dangling cheap goods at the ends of their fishing rods with the aim of growing American dependence on Chinese factories. These videos attempt to argue that the Trump administration’s trade rebalancing is cutting Americans off from their endless supply of dirt-cheap goods. But China’s imports come with a hidden cost.

The United States has already lost millions of community-supporting manufacturing jobs to China, which now dominates not only consumer goods sectors, like apparel and toys, but also industries that play a critical role in our national security, like autos and electronics.

We cannot afford to allow China to further erode our manufacturing base, especially as that erosion benefits a geo-political rival.

Additionally, the Chinese Communist Party continues to deploy forced labor as a “central tactic” for the repression of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China. These detainees are not shown in #ChineseManufacturingTok’s viral videos, but they work in a wide swath of China’s supply chain, including apparel, footwear, holiday decorations, electronics, hair products, pharmaceuticals, solar power equipment, and so much more.

Buying made in China means that you’re likely buying something made with forced labor. No amount of discount can compensate for that moral cost.

It’s easy to get caught up in the shopping frenzy that the Chinese manufacturing TikTok trend feeds, but these videos are unquestionably a trap. Instead, channel that energy into supporting fair labor and local jobs by buying Made in America.

Browse our Made in America Directory of more than 700 companies for shopping inspiration.

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