HUNT VALLEY, Md. (TNND) — President Donald Trump and China are locked in a prolonged tariff war as the White House attempts to overturn decades of established international trade rules. Social media is becoming one of Beijing's biggest weapons as Chinese officials slug it out with the administration.

Trump imposed 145% duties on Chinese imports earlier this month, but not before first applying hefty tariffs to most other countries in Europe and everywhere else. He pressed pause after a major selloff in the bond market, while maintaining those targeting Beijing. China returned the favor with taxes on U.S. imports.

Because the U.S. buys more from China than the other way around, the impact on Beijing is more acute from the standpoint of its industrial base. Americans will feel the pain in the next few weeks through higher prices, according to economists, who point to expected shortages on everything from apparel merchandise to laptops and televisions.

One area where the fight is playing out is on TikTok, a Beijing-headquartered video-sharing app that Congress banned before Trump temporarily rescued it. Lawmakers cited concerns about China's access to Americans' personal information for passing a ban.

During his first term, Trump backed a similar move against the app, but he shifted positions ahead of his presidential bid. He joined the app last year, amassing a large following in the process, and he has credited TikTok for helping him win over younger voters during the 2024 election.

Trump signed an executive order in early April keeping TikTok operating inside the U.S. for another 75 days. He's angling for more time to broker a deal to bring the platform under American ownership. In the meantime, users in China are reportedly using the app to direct Americans on methods to avoid high prices on Trump's tariffs.

Chinese manufacturers are rushing into the space to urge buyers to purchase products directly from manufacturers, effectively phasing American brands like Lululemon out of the process, according to The New York Times. Chinese shopping app DHGate was reportedly among the 10 most downloaded apps in Apple's and Google's app stores this month.

It shows how Chinese manufacturers -- which operate at the discretion of Beijing -- can communicate directly with Americans on messages regarding "our dependence on Chinese goods," Matt Pearl, a policy analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told The New York Times.

“It’s activating people politically in a similar way that you saw when we were going to cancel TikTok, but this time in the context of tariffs,” Pearl said. That's a reference to the lobbying campaign by influencers to keep U.S. lawmakers from banning TikTok in the first place.

The number of videos on the platform pushing people to source from Chinese factories skyrocketed nearly 250% in the week following Trump's announced tariffs targeting Chinese imports, according to Graphica, a social network analysis firm.

Retail experts warn the items being promoted are unlikely authentic products from name brands.

Factories typically sign nondisclosure agreements with those brands and are therefore unlikely to torch that relationship to sell some goods through direct sales, according to Sucharita Kodali, a retail analyst at Forrester. She told The New York Times that China is allowing the videos to go viral anyway.

There's also a wave of influencers going viral on TikTok for pointing out how far a dollar can go in China's urban cities compared to in the U.S. One popular user who purports to live in China and goes by the name Lisa Lee frequently posts videos discussing the tariff back and forth.

On April 5, 2025, three days after Trump rolled out his aggressive tariff regime, Lee published a video in English showing how much she claims to spend when going out for every meal in a single day. She described her schedule from morning until night, noting the various meals she buys in that time, and then concludes with what she said is a total cost of $9.50 -- or 66 yuan.

The cost of living is low in China, partially because the average income is smaller compared to the U.S. The median income in China is about $4,426, relative to Americans, who on average pull down roughly $20,000 dollars per year, according to the World Population Review.

Another viral video on April 12, 2025, shows a TikToker telling Americans to blame their government and U.S. corporations for high prices and a lack of industrial output.

“Americans, you don’t need a tariff. You need a revolution,” the man said in English. “For decades, your government and oligarchs will ship your jobs to China. Not for diplomacy, not for peace, but to exploit cheap labor. And in the process, they hollow out your middle class, crash your working class."

Polling on Trump's handling of the economy is down. Many Americans feel inflation is likely to accelerate due in part to the new set of tariffs. There are also concerns of a possible severe recession. White House officials are trying to redirect attention to the possible negative impacts on China.

"I think that over time we will see that the Chinese tariffs are unsustainable for China," U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House Tuesday. China could lose up to 10 million jobs if there isn't a corresponding drop in tariffs, he added.

The Financial Times reported this week that Chinese factories are furloughing workers and holding off any more production as China looks for new markets outside the U.S. to sell merchandise.