An AI-generated video mocking downcast American workers in a post-tariffs world has been circulating on Chinese and U.S. social media.
The video shows overweight employees in a textiles factory, appearing exhausted and depressed as they stitch clothing on sewing machines.
Depicting the type of clothing manufacturing jobs that have been outsourced overseas in the past decades, the 32-second clip paints a dystopian picture of what the U.S. working world might look like as a result of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
As the clip fades out with traditional Chinese music playing in the background, the president’s ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign slogan pops up on the screen. The origin of the clip is not clear but it was published on Chinese TikTok accounts.
Viewed millions of times on social media already, the video comes as Trump’s global trade war continues to escalate. On Wednesday China announced it was raising retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods to 84 percent, hours after Trump imposed 104 percent levies on Chinese imports.
The Chinese foreign ministry has vowed its country would “fight till the end” and has accused America of “typical unilateralism and protectionist economic bullying”.
The video has sparked further debate on social media about Trump’s ultimate goal in imposing stiff tariffs on China - and what the impact will be.
“The goal is not to bring these low skilled jobs back to the US, but have China buy more US goods to offset a 300 bln [dollar trade deficit] and counting yearly trade imbalance,” said one.
“Low skilled manufacturing will never come back to the US. Highly skilled manufacturing won’t come to the US because we gutted education and don’t have the highly skilled workforce,” said another.
A third added: “America will become the poorest country in the world under Trump's rule,” while a fourth mused: “iPhones are about to cost $5,000 and come with no charger.”
Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary, told CBS that “trillions” of dollars would flow into the U.S. in the form of new investments in America’s manufacturing sector.
Pointing out that the construction of new factories “takes years” and would not reduce high costs for Americans in the short term, host Margaret Brennan asked: “You said that robots are going to fill those jobs. So those aren't union worker jobs.”
“It’s automated factories,” Lutnick conceded, while promising that American workers would build and “operate” the factories brought to US shores in the coming months and years.
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