Desperate Move: Chinese Companies Now Beg India for Help!

Desperate move. Chinese companies now beg India for help. China's ghost town explosion. 80 million empty homes signal a silent crisis. Factories go dark. Jobs disappear. China's next unemployment wave begins. Desperate move. Chinese companies now beg India for help. At the Canton Fair that closed on May 5th, Chinese companies requested Indian companies to supply goods to the United States under Chinese brands or joint brands. And some American customers may negotiate directly with India. The Indian government negotiated a trade agreement with the Trump administration. Vice President J.D. Vance promoted cooperation during his visit to India and planned to reach an agreement before the fall to reduce tariff pressure. Bloomberg reported that high U.S. tariffs have hit Chinese companies hard, forcing Chinese companies to seek help from Indian exporters and entrust them to complete U.S. customer orders on their behalf to save the market in the trade war. Ajay Sahai, Director General of the Federation of Indian Export Organizations, revealed that many Chinese companies have pleaded with Indian companies to supply hand tools, electronic products, and household appliances to American customers. Indian companies need to pay commissions to Chinese companies, and the amount is negotiated by buyers and suppliers. China's exports to the United States face a punitive tariff of 145%, while Indian products only face 10%. If the 90-day negotiations are fruitless, India will face a tariff of 26%. After Trump returned to the White House, he imposed a 46% tariff on Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries. It is difficult for Chinese companies to trans-ship through Southeast Asia, and India has become a new hope. However, India has set restrictions on investment from China, and Chinese companies cannot set up factories or trans-ship goods there. Industry insiders pointed out that Washington is putting pressure on Beijing through tariffs, and the differences between the United States and China are difficult to resolve. Chinese companies are struggling to find a way out. It is still unclear whether India can become a lifeline. Industry insiders said that under the impact of U.S. tariffs, Chinese companies are contacting Indian exporters and asking them to complete orders on their behalf. China's ghost town explosion, 80 million empty homes signal a silent crisis. In recent years, China's real estate market has plunged into deep recession. Foreign media revealed that as millions of homes sit abandoned, tens of thousands of ghost towns have mushroomed nationwide, exposing the crumbling foundation of China's property sector. It is estimated that between 65 million and 80 million houses across China stand vacant, posing not only a critical threat to the real estate market, but also shaking the very core of China's economic and social structure. The so-called ghost town refers to residential areas built yet left deserted for years due to a lack of occupants. Take Kangbashi district in Ordo City, Inner Mongolia, for example. Originally designed to house 300,000 people, its actual occupancy rate is under 10%. Similar scenes have spread across China, from the Yujiapu Financial District to the Xiongannu area in Tianjin. Towering skyscrapers, grand boulevards, and empty subway stations lie abandoned, turning ambitious urban dreams into wastelands. The root cause behind these ghost towns is rampant overinvestment and reckless planning. Driven by misguided government policies, real estate developers blindly expanded without heeding market demand, leaving behind towering shells of concrete. In its frantic push to boost GDP, the government leaned heavily on infrastructure spending, but utterly failed to balance supply and demand, leading to vast cities of silence and decay. China's real estate market has long been a speculative casino, with countless families treating properties as mere tools to preserve and grow their wealth. Foreign media reports that a staggering 70% of household wealth in China is tied to real estate, highlighting the dangerous over-dependence of Chinese society on property bubbles. But as the market spiraled out of control and investment demand collapsed, the inevitable implosion followed. Since 2020, China's real estate sector has been in freefall. Major developers have tumbled into financial ruin, while tens of millions of empty and abandoned homes have become a glaring crisis. To prop up the collapsing industry, the government unleashed massive bailouts, yet these lifelines have failed to correct the fatal imbalance between supply and demand. As a result, the market has frozen even harder. Delayed home deliveries have piled up, and homeowners' rights have been trampled. Professor Sarah Williams of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology warned that Chinese developers, despite massive oversupply and dwindling demand, continue churning out new projects. The government fuels this madness with endless loans, pushing developers into a Ponzi-like spiral, borrowing new money to pay off old debts. Rather than responding to market needs, developers have been clinging to life through government crutches and easy credit. But this broken model has devastating consequences for ordinary homebuyers. Vast sums of capital have been sunk into ghost cities where no one will ever live, leading to catastrophic financial losses. Families who once dreamed of building wealth through property now find themselves trapped, unable to realize gains, and staring down the barrel of major capital loss. The explosion of ghost towns does more than expose real estate failures. It unearths deep fractures in China's social structure. A sea of empty homes represents a monumental squandering of resources, threatening investors, hollowing out communities, and stoking social unrest. Worse still, these deserted structures offer no real improvements to people's lives, only barren reminders of waste and mismanagement. Beyond social damage, these ghost towns threaten to trigger financial disaster. Since real estate underpins much of China's wealth, the exposure of financial institutions to property loans is enormous. As the bubble bursts and ghost towns fester, banks and lenders will drown in a rising tide of non-performing assets, destabilizing China's entire financial system. China's ghost town crisis lays bare the rotten nexus between reckless overinvestment and a fatally skewed market. It also exposes the ceaseless buck passing between the government and developers. As the real estate bubbles pop one after another, China faces ever-mounting economic peril. Without bold and sweeping reforms to the real estate sector and a complete overhaul of its development strategy, these ghost towns will continue to haunt China's economic future like ticking time traps. A new wave of unemployment is coming. Chinese factories are halting production and scrambling to find new markets as US tariffs begin to bite. According to companies and analysts, the collapse in overseas orders is now turning into job losses. I know of several factories that have already sent half their workers home and shut down most operations, said Cameron Johnson, senior partner at Shanghai-based consultancy Tidal Wave Solutions. He noted that toy makers, sporting goods producers, and suppliers of low-cost items like dollar store goods are bearing the brunt of the blow. This hasn't become a full-blown crisis yet, but the cracks are spreading across major export hubs like Yiwu and Dongguan, Johnson warned. Factories are already cutting jobs and halting output, praying for tariff relief that may never come. Goldman Sachs estimates that 10 million to 20 million workers are directly tied to China's US-bound export sector. China's total urban employment last year stood at 473.45 million. This month, the US launched a barrage of tariffs exceeding 100% on Chinese imports. China hit back in kind. Despite President Trump's claim that negotiations are ongoing, Beijing flatly denied any active dialogue. Ash Monga, CEO of Imex Sourcing Services, said the damage from the tariff shock dwarfs that of the pandemic. For small firms with limited capital, he warned, this sudden blow may trigger a wave of bankruptcies. In response, Monga plans to launch a tariff assistance platform to help struggling small businesses source outside of China. With the export channel collapsing, desperate Chinese exporters are rushing to Woodswool, a sportswear manufacturer in Ningbo, pivoted to live-stream e-commerce within days. In just one week, the firm received over 30 orders worth more than 5,000 yuan, around $690. But that's a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of loss. All our US orders are dead, said Li Yan, Woodswool's factory manager and brand director. US buyers once consumed over half of the factory's production. Now, idle capacity could stretch on for months. For over 20 years, Woodswool shipped goods to Europe, Australia, and the US. Under government pressure, major tech firms are being mobilized to help redirect exporters to domestic consumers. Live-streaming has become a national lifeline. Woodswool now relies on Baidu's live-stream platform and virtual sales tools. Li Yan chose Baidu's AI-powered system because it's fast and low-cost, requiring no fancy setups or large teams. Baidu claims it has already helped hundreds of firms build domestic sales pipelines. Through its virtual avatar tech, companies simulate real-time sales pitches and automate customer interaction. According to Baidu, the virtual agents offer better returns than live presenters. Challenges in the domestic market. JD.com was among the first to unveil a rescue initiative, pledging 200 billion yuan, 27.22 billion, to buy excess Chinese exports and sell them locally. Meituan, too, joined the push, though without disclosing its investment. But that 27.22 billion dollars covers just 5 percent of China's total 2023 exports to the U.S. 524.66 billion dollars. Some companies told us their entire business model collapsed under the 125 percent tariff, said Michael Hart, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China. He added that domestic competition has already become cutthroat. Hart expects most U.S.-China tariffs to remain for the foreseeable future, with only narrow exemptions ahead. That's clearly where things are heading now. Yet goods built for suburban American consumers often fall flat in Chinese urban markets. Some manufacturers are now pleading their case directly to shoppers on Chinese platforms like Xiaohongshu and Douyin. But Ashley Duderenach, founder of marketing firm Chozan, said the domestic audience is already showing signs of fatigue. Beijing's famous business community used to be bustling with people, but now the streets are deserted. I love Beijing. What's going on recently? Brothers, this is a night market. Why is the night market, which was once bustling, so deserted? There is no business at the stalls, and there is no business in the shops. Why is it so deserted? Is there going to be a war? You said that China's population is not small at 1.4 billion, so why don't you see anyone coming out? From 8 o'clock in the morning until now, let alone opening. There is not even a child. Affected by the overall economic environment in China, Beijing is becoming more and more depressed. A large number of shops have closed down, more and more people are fleeing Beijing, and many restaurants have no customers. And the situation of workers seems to be even more serious. According to reports, some part-time workers in Majuqiao are facing the dilemma of one day full and three days hungry. Today we will talk about related topics. Let me show you how difficult it is to run a physical business now. This is why I don't recommend you invest in physical stores if you have some spare money. I live in a community in the East Fifth Ring Road of Beijing. As soon as I leave this community, these three stores are all closed. They have been closed for more than half a year, and they have not been rented out yet. In this hot pot food supermarket, a plate of beef or something costs 70, 80 or more than 100 yuan, which is very expensive. Who comes here to buy? These are ordinary people. These two stores have been vacant for more than two months, they have not been rented out. The location is very good, next to the community entrance. You see, this one is newly rented out, selling flower tea. I don't even need to think about it, it will definitely not make money. Who drinks tea? Who buys flowers? Four or five stores near my community have closed down, but it is still open. There is another empty store here with a large area of 246 square meters, with upper and lower floors. I tell you, there is no store in this area that has been developing stably for a long time. Beijing Zhongguankun Entrepreneurship Street was officially opened in June 2014. It used to be very lively here, but now there are no people on the street. The blogger said in the video that Zhongguankun represents the forefront of Beijing's technology. He experienced the glory days of Zhongguankun and was shocked to see it become empty in just a few years. It's really good. This bookstore is still there, called China Bookstore, but this Zhongguankun Entrepreneurship Street has completely failed. There is also a security guard with a red hoop. All the people in Zhongguankun Entrepreneurship Street have moved away. It used to be very lively here. Majuqiao in the southeastern suburbs of Beijing is a job-seeking spot for migrant workers looking for odd jobs. There is a saying in Beijing that, if you are in trouble, you must go to Majuqiao. However, in recent years, Majuqiao has seen a situation of too many people, too few jobs and lower wages. Reflecting the current dilemma of the mainland's employment market, have you ever seen a labor market at 4am? This is the most inclusive place in Beijing, Majuqiao. Can you imagine it? The most common people here are 50 and 60-year-olds, and a backpack is enough to hold all their homes. When it is below zero on the street at 4am, some people are still asleep, while others have already carried their life bags. Here, a breakfast of 5 or 6 yuan can fill their stomachs. After all, only when you are full can you have the energy to work. Today, the lowest wage is 130 yuan for 8 hours, and 260 yuan for 12 hours. You can do express delivery sorting, mud removal, and brick moving as long as you have the strength. Whenever a boss says he wants to recruit workers, they will quickly surround him, because in the world of Majuqiao, not being active means no food to eat, and only by working hard can As long as you are selected, it means you have a way to live today. I saw someone on the internet saying that Beijing is good but too tiring. Some people come with dreams and can only leave crying in the end. It is difficult for people who do odd jobs in Beijing to find jobs, and it is also difficult for college graduates to find jobs. Blogger Guo Guo said that there are three college students in her family, all of whom are unemployed. There are three college students in my family who are all unemployed. I'm looking for a job in Tianjin, my sister is looking for a job in Zhengzhou, and my brother is looking for a job in our hometown. I worked in Beijing for 5 years before moving to Tianjin. I came to Tianjin for the postgraduate entrance examination last year, and has now gone to Zhengzhou to look for a job, but I haven't found one yet. My brother worked in Hangzhou for 2 years before and now can't find a job in Zhengzhou. He has been looking for a job all over the country but still can't find a suitable one. So how did the national unemployment rate of 5% come about? It's because almost everyone in our family is unemployed. I don't really understand where the 5% unemployment rate comes from. I feel like there are unemployed people everywhere around me. I left the workplace for 2 years and returned to Beijing this year to job hunt. Despite having 5 years of experience, I've had very few interviews. One company I negotiated salary with later said they stopped recruiting due to budget cuts, after 3 rounds of interviews and a month of waiting. Another company also halted recruitment during the third round. Last year, after negotiating salary with another company, internal restructuring delayed the process until the offer was eventually cancelled. It's all just too outrageous. Blogger Liu Xiaoyang and her husband are also migrant workers in Beijing. At the end of 2023, they spent all their savings, paid a down payment of more than 1.8 million yuan, and borrowed 2.8 million yuan from the bank to buy a house within the 5th ring road in Beijing. However, a year after they bought the house, she was laid off by the company and left the company where she had worked for 8 years. Their lives suddenly fell into trouble. The sudden change caught me off guard. With our current situation, my husband's salary alone is not enough to support our monthly mortgage of 20,000 yuan and family expenses. All our savings from the past few years have been used to pay the down payment. Now I have no job and the balance in my wallet won't last long. This kind of thing happened to me, and I deeply realized how important cash flow is to a company and a family. If a company has no cash flow and encounters a crisis, the final outcome is bankruptcy. If a family has no savings, once something happens, it will be a mess. These past two days, I have been thinking about how to work in the future. At the age of 35, should I choose to start my own business or continue to look for a job? If I start a business, it is impossible to have income in the short term, and it also requires capital investment, and the risk is very high. With our current family situation, we can no longer afford any risks, and I don't have a particularly good entrepreneurial idea. Obviously, starting a business is not realistic. Looking for a job? A 35-year-old mother of two has no competitiveness in the workplace. Many people are eyeing jobs that pay just a few thousand yuan, and the salary is not enough for our expenses. I didn't expect that being unemployed in middle age would be so embarrassing. A Dai, a migrant worker in Beijing, has been unemployed for almost three months and has not found a job. She went to an interview that day. The interview location could be reached in one hour, and there was no need to change buses. The commuting distance was really good, so I was looking forward to this interview. I communicated well with the other party on the recruitment software. Their online store sells maternal and infant products, which I am also very interested in. When I arrived at the interview location, the person in charge of the e-commerce department interviewed me first, and we had a very pleasant chat. After chatting for more than 20 minutes, he said that he needed the person in charge of another department to come for an interview. The person in charge was a serious-looking man, and his questions were quite professional. However, after he asked how old my baby was, he did not ask any further questions, which made me feel a little uncomfortable.