Chinese firms get unlikely boost from Trump election as merchandise orders soar

Though a second term for Donald Trump as US president is generally regarded as bad news for China’s export-heavy economy, there is one part of the country where some merchants are finding reason to celebrate – the eastern manufacturing hub of Yiwu, where orders for Trump merchandise have gone through the roof.

Over 1,000 products with Trump’s likeness or slogans – clothing, dolls, flags, socks, figurines and more – are now available on the popular shopping platform Amazon.

A top-selling piece of apparel is the red hat, emblazoned with Trump’s “Make America Great Again” motto, that has become synonymous with his political brand. Priced at US$19.99, over 10,000 units have been sold in the past month.

A great deal of these items come from Yiwu and other production centres in China – even as Trump spent much of his first term raising tariffs on Chinese goods and attempting to redirect supply chains away from the world’s second-largest economy.

“Previously, I had a handful of Trump-related orders each day on Amazon. But on the night the US election results were announced, my sales shot up to over 3,000 orders in a single night,” said 30-year-old e-commerce merchant Ricky Luo.

In two days, orders from the United States and Japan alone brought Luo and his team over US$20,000 in revenue.