An AI-generated video mocking downcast American workers in a post-tariffs world has been circulating on Chinese language and U.S. social media.
The video exhibits obese workers in a textiles manufacturing facility, showing exhausted and depressed as they sew clothes on stitching machines.
Depicting the kind of clothes manufacturing jobs which were outsourced abroad previously many years, the 32-second clip paints a dystopian image of what the U.S. working world may seem like because of Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
Because the clip fades out with conventional Chinese language music taking part in within the background, the president’s ‘Make America Nice Once more’ marketing campaign slogan pops up on the display screen. The origin of the clip isn’t clear nevertheless it was revealed on Chinese language TikTok accounts.
Considered thousands and thousands of occasions on social media already, the video comes as Trump’s international commerce warfare continues to escalate. On Wednesday China introduced it was elevating retaliatory tariffs on U.S. items to 84 %, hours after Trump imposed 104 % levies on Chinese language imports.
The Chinese language international ministry has vowed its nation would “combat until the top” and has accused America of “typical unilateralism and protectionist financial bullying”.
The video has sparked additional debate on social media about Trump’s final purpose in imposing stiff tariffs on China – and what the affect will likely be.
“The purpose is to not carry these low expert jobs again to the US, however have China purchase extra US items to offset a 300 bln [dollar trade deficit] and counting yearly commerce imbalance,” mentioned one.
“Low expert manufacturing won’t ever come again to the US. Extremely expert manufacturing gained’t come to the US as a result of we gutted schooling and don’t have the extremely expert workforce,” mentioned one other.
A 3rd added: “America will turn into the poorest nation on the earth below Trump’s rule,” whereas a fourth mused: “iPhones are about to price $5,000 and include no charger.”
Howard Lutnick, Trump’s commerce secretary, advised CBS that “trillions” of {dollars} would circulation into the U.S. within the type of new investments in America’s manufacturing sector.
Stating that the development of latest factories “takes years” and wouldn’t scale back excessive prices for People within the quick time period, host Margaret Brennan requested: “You mentioned that robots are going to fill these jobs. So these aren’t union employee jobs.”
“It’s automated factories,” Lutnick conceded, whereas promising that American employees would construct and “function” the factories dropped at US shores within the coming months and years.
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