Chinese factories are taking the trade war somewhere new

China is taking the trade war to a new battleground: America’s TikTok feeds. Chinese suppliers have been flooding American social media this week, urging users to outflank President Donald Trump’s 145% tariffs on Beijing by buying directly from their factories. One TikTok user, who goes by Wang Sen, claims that he is the original equipment manufacturer for most luxury brands, while standing in front of a wall of what appear to be ultra-spendy Birkin bags. OEMs work behind the scenes to make the products that another company then sells under its own brand. “Why don’t you just contact us and buy from us? You won’t believe the prices we (will) give you,” he said in one clip. His video was later taken down by the app. In the meantime, though, DHgate, an online wholesale store infamous for selling Chinese dupes of luxury goods, has shot to #2 on the US Apple app store. Another app, Taobao, China’s OG e-commerce site, is at #7. It’s highly improbable that these are real suppliers for brands like Lululemon and Chanel, multiple experts told CNN. Legitimate manufacturers usually sign non-disclosure agreements, so it’s unlikely that these creators are selling the real thing. But the videos are highlighting not only the anxiety that the tariffs are causing consumers, they also reveal how much shoppers rely on China. These Chinese creators are pushing the message that, despite the White House’s insistence that their economic policies put America first, those same policies will cause the American consumer to lose access to their favorite products or pay more for them. “Now this is how you do a trade war,” read one comment under a video claiming to feature the suppliers of Lululemon leggings with over 1.5 million likes. TikTok did not respond to a request for comment. You’re not really buying direct from these brands In one video, an influencer who goes by the name LunaSourcingChina touts two factories they say are located in Yiwu, a city famous for its wholesale market, claiming that activewear brand Lululemon sources its $98 leggings directly from them. “I guess most of you know the price of Lululemon or other big brands … and guess what, here in these two factories, you can get them for around five to six bucks,” she said. Lulu, however, quickly refuted those claims. In a statement Monday, Lulu said it “does not work with the manufacturers identified in the online videos and we urge consumers to be aware of potentially counterfeit products and misinformation.” The two factories mentioned in the TikTok aren’t included in Lululemon’s April 2025 supplier list. The company does work with a number of factories in the Chinese mainland, but it also has suppliers in countries like Vietnam, Peru and Cambodia. However, any factory offering direct orders to American consumers is probably not legit, experts say. Any manufacturer producing for big name brands is likely under strict contractual obligations to not disclose that fact, Hao Dong, a senior lecturer in operations and project management at the University of Southampton, told CNN. They definitely wouldn’t be publicly selling those big-name products on the internet. The products in the TikTok videos could also be high-quality dupes and counterfeits, which Lululemon has previously tried to combat. The truth behind luxury So, are the expensive handbags watches labeled made in Italy or Switzerland actually produced in China? The answer is “neither a clear yes, nor a clear no,” Regina Frei, professor of sustainable and circular systems at University of the Arts London, told CNN. Many luxury brands will preassemble some items or hardware in China before assembling the final product in France and Italy. That could be things like the complicated hardware for an expensive watch or the packaging for a designer tote. But there’s no way to fully know because of the famously opaque luxury supply chains, Frei said. Even factories located in Italy or other countries can still have links to China, such as foreign ownership or management. “If you talk about very expensive handbags that involve a lot of manual work, they will probably be preassembled somewhere, and then they will be finalized, say, in France,” she said. So even if some of the parts of luxury goods do come from China, there’s no guarantee of proper safety and quality control measures if you buy the final product from these warehouses on TikTok. There also aren’t any warranties or returns. And it’s unclear how these products, even if bought directly from Chinese manufacturers, could escape Trump’s 145% tariffs. Experts predict that even goods bought directly from manufacturers on sites like Temu and Aliexpress will face price increases with the upcoming elimination of the de minimis exemption for packages worth less than $800. Facing consumerism As these videos from Chinese manufacturers go viral, America’s dependence on Chinese and international supply chains are under a spotlight. That transparency is forcing some consumers to contend with a question long buried in the back of the American psyche: Where do my favorite products actually come from? “If China stopped producing, our shops would be empty,” Frei said. But the attention is also highlighting the environmental impact of ordering en masse from Chinese manufacturers – a practice that exploded in popularity with the rise of shops like Shein and Temu, which benefitted from the soon-to-be-defunct de minimis tax exemption. The individual shipping of packages around the world is an “environmental disaster,” Frei said. These packages are individually wrapped in plastic and sent by airplanes or cargo ships around the world, creating a massive carbon footprint, Frei said. And oftentimes, these cheap items end up as rubbish. “Are we witnessing the death of capitalism?” one user joked on TikTok.