US Tariffs Devastate China’s Manufacturing: Tens of Thousands of Factories Closed, Despair Spreads

It's all covered in today's China Truths. President Trump, look what your policies have done. Because of your trade policies, our production lines have come to a halt. The textile industry here has long relied on the U.S. market, and now, entire factories are shutting down. Just look around. Rows and rows of plants have gone silent. The American empire isn't a paper tiger. It's a real one. The U.S.-China trade war and America's capital controls have hit us hard. Just today, a friend in Kunshan told me his electronics company had to halt all operations. The factory is shut, and now even the office staff are working from home. If the stoppage lasts another month, they may not have jobs to return to. Jiangsu province lives off exports, especially to the U.S., and Kunshan is packed with Taiwan-invested firms focused on electronics. But with U.S. demand blocked, people here are in crisis. This trade war has just escalated again, with the Trump administration slapping a jaw-dropping 245 percent tariff on Chinese goods. That's not just a number. It's a sledgehammer blow to our already struggling economy, sending factories and workers into freefall. In response, China hit back with up to 125 percent tariffs on U.S. imports. Just like we've shown in our previous videos, there's a lot the public hasn't been told. The truth has been buried under waves of one-sided reporting, downplaying China's suffering while amplifying U.S. troubles. So in this video, let's hear directly from the people, ordinary Chinese citizens, about the pain they're enduring in this trade war. This man stands in front of a cold, silent warehouse, eyes heavy with sorrow. Inside, container after container of goods, once bound for America, now stranded. He wrote on his personal page, Lowering his head, he sighs, His silence says it all, exhaustion, defeat, and despair. Today, the company needed just 20 workers. Over 200 showed up. And more are still arriving. The same story is playing out all over Hangzhou, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai. Few openings, too many applicants. Everyone's stuck here, desperate. This factory? It's nicknamed the death line in Zhejiang. Even dogs wouldn't work here. But now? People are fighting to get in. And even then, there's no guarantee. You better ask yourself what makes you stand out. It's no longer who wants the job, it's who deserves it. Out of 300 people, only 20 will be hired. Less than a 10% chance. Even the media's reporting it now. 300,000 rural workers in Zhejiang can't find work. Some rush in with hope, only to leave disappointed. Many come, but no one's hiring. No calls, no interviews. Let's just go, some whisper. It's over. And yet another factory goes bankrupt. A factory that had invested tens of millions of yuan with tens of thousands of machines, gone. Everything's been hauled away. The US-led tariff war has only lasted 12 days, but thousands of factories have already shut their doors. The owner here hasn't slept for three days. He filled orders that now can't be shipped. The warehouse is packed, the bills are mounting, the whole production line is frozen, and debt is piling up. Creditors, suppliers, workers, all showing up demanding payment and salaries. Out of options, the boss had to sell everything at dirt cheap prices. Machines worth tens of millions, state-of-the-art tech some only bought a year or two ago, precision lathes, CNC centers, magnetic separators, wire cutting machines, all sold for scraps. The trade war is brutal. Over 1,000 jeans factories in Zhongshan have shut down. The entire export-driven garment industry is hanging by a thread. Only a few factories survive, mostly by shifting focus to the domestic market. But that won't last long. As foreign trade companies fail to export, they'll flood the local market, triggering a fierce price war. Factories that just hired workers are now thinking about layoffs. Letting them go is heartbreaking, but keeping them means bleeding money. Many factories are caught in a deadlock and quietly going bankrupt without notice, without a sound. In Huzhou, countless factories have stopped operating. Business owners are anxious, asking, are there any orders left this year? Can we keep going? One veteran factory boss said it best, these days, you can do anything, just don't open a factory. Why has it come to this? Sky-high rents, massive overcapacity, plummeting orders due to the U.S. tariffs, and mounting taxes. Profits are suffocating. Prices are collapsing in a race to the bottom. The post-'70s and-'80s generation of factory owners are burning out. Is there any future left for Huzhou's manufacturing industry? Even old giants are falling. A century-old textile plant in Hangzhou just shut down, laying off over 10,000 workers across its subsidiaries. In Guangzhou, a 145% U.S. tariff on Chinese textiles has paralyzed the industry. Nearly half of China's 12,000 textile factories have stopped production. Machines once roaring day and night now sit silent. In Nantong, it's worse. Tens of thousands of SMEs are fighting for survival. Orders are down 60%. Profits are razor-thin. Owners are stuck in tangled debt chains, running daily between courts and banks, begging for a lifeline. Some mortgaged their homes. Others borrowed at high interest just to pay workers. Most cry alone at night in empty workshops. This isn't drama. This is real. One man, once an ABS plastics exporter to the U.S., is now recording videos for Taobao. With exports blocked, he's pitching his products online, explaining specs, durability, and heat resistance, hoping to stay afloat. We're committed to quality, he says, though survival is all he can really promise. As he walks across his massive half-empty factory, he says it takes 20 minutes just to get from one end to the other. If this place shuts down, he sighs, it would be a tragedy. Under the Sino-U.S. trade war, China's economy has been hit hard. Foreign businessmen have withdrawn, and a large number of shops have closed down. Even the last Japanese Aeon supermarket in Beijing announced that it will cease operations on May 16th. Some people said that once the tariff war started, China's goods could not be exported, and foreign exchange could not be exchanged. Without money and orders, the people in China had a hard time. According to the official media of the Communist Party of China, the last Aeon supermarket in Beijing issued a notice to stop business. The company said that due to business adjustment, the Aeon supermarket Fengtai store will officially cease operations after the end of operations on May 16th. The announcement shows that after the closure of the Fengtai store, the Aeon points cards and shopping cards held by customers can still be used in the five stores in Yanjiao, Hebei, and Tianjin. According to the report, the closure of the Aeon supermarket Fengtai store was a decision that had to be made. Because the Aeon mall in Fengtai, Beijing, where it is located, is about to close. Some netizens said that the Aeon mall in Fengtai will close in September. The reporter called the Aeon mall in Fengtai but did not get a clear reply and was immediately hung up on. Founded in September 1926, Aeon Group is a Japanese retail giant, ranked 140th in the Fortune Global 500, and is one of the largest department store retailers in Japan and Asia. It has been investing in China since 1996 and entered the Beijing market in 2008. According to Aeon China, Aeon has opened 79 supermarket stores in China so far. According to Aeon's 2024 performance report, the company's revenue in 2024 was $8.095 billion Hong Kong dollars, approximately $1.044 billion US dollars. Down from $8.693 billion Hong Kong dollars, approximately $1.121 billion US dollars in 2023. The net profit attributable to the parent company was a loss of approximately $341 million Hong Kong dollars, approximately $44 million US dollars. From 2017 to the first half of 2024, Aeon's business in mainland China lost a total of more than $737 million Hong Kong dollars, approximately $95 million US dollars. Due to the company's continuous losses, the Aeon Supermarket Capitalan Shicheng Store in Wuhan officially closed on August 20th, 2024. The two stores opened by Aeon Supermarket in Chaoyang Joy City and Changping Aeon International Mall were closed in October 2022 and May 2023, respectively. In February this year, the Shenzhen Aeon Supermarket Baowan Center Store, which had been in operation for 13 years, announced its closure. In the Chinese market, Aeon operates in three modes, comprehensive department stores, food supermarkets, and Dream City shopping centers. Tang Hai, pseudonym, who lives in Sicheng District, Beijing, told the Epoch Times that now that China and the United States are in a trade war, the Chinese economy is not doing well. And the people have no money in their pockets. Even if they have money, they dare not spend it. Purchasing power has dropped sharply, and some businesses can no longer operate. The counters rented inside and outside the supermarket are now empty. All industries are in recession, and many stores have closed down. Tang Hai said that Sicheng District, Beijing, is closer to the city center. There used to be a lot of people, but now there are fewer people on the streets than before. There are also fewer people taking buses and subways, and there are fewer people shopping in stores on the streets than before. Last weekend, I went to a Sichuan restaurant with my friends. In the past, we had to make an appointment or queue up at mealtime on weekends. This time, the restaurant was empty with only a few tables, which seemed particularly deserted. Tang Hai said that there used to be a large car for a supermarket in Sicheng District. It used to be crowded, but it has been closed for two years now. Once the tariff war started, goods could not be exported, and foreign exchange could not be exchanged. Enterprises had no money and no orders, and the people in China had a hard time. The epidemic had caused a large number of businesses to close down before, and some outsiders had no jobs in Beijing. If they couldn't find a job, they could only return to their hometowns. So the population of Beijing was getting smaller and smaller. Beijing was like this, let alone other second and third tier cities. China's large supermarkets and department stores have been closing down one after another. According to data, by 2024, more than 12,000 physical stores across the country will have closed down. Including large stores such as Yonghui Supermarket, China Resources Group and Walmart, Beijing Huatang Shopping Mall, Wuhan Optics Valley Pedestrian Street, and other landmark commercial entities that were once popular, have closed down one after another due to long-term losses. Individual retail stores, clothing, daily necessities, etc., are also severely affected. In 2023, the number of self-employed businesses deregistered nationwide reached 3.1 million. Many street shops posted notices of popular shops for rent because no one is interested.