Protests erupt in China after furious workers demand back pay as Trump’s tariffs on imports jolt economy

Protests from furious factory workers in China demanding back pay are spreading across the country after President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports began impacting the communist nation’s economy.

Unrest has been reported across the country as workers have taken to the streets protesting unpaid wages and challenging unfair dismissals following the closures of factories squeezed by US tariffs, according to Radio Free Asia.

Chinese industry leaders, meanwhile, are “extremely anxious” about the steep duties, with many telling factories and suppliers to halt or delay supplies, Wang Xin, head of an industry group representing more than 2,000 Chinese merchants told the Financial Times.

At least 16 million jobs across many industries in China are at risk due to President Trump’s imposing of a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, according to analysis from Goldman Sachs.

“It’s not easy at the moment,” a 26-year-old toy factory worker told the FT. His employer, in the Chinese city of Zhejiang, mostly sells to the US, and management recently forced workers to take two weeks off unpaid in the face of the tariffs.

Last month, construction workers threatened to throw themselves off the buildings they were working on unless they received their unpaid wages in the northeastern city of Tongliao, Radio Free Asia reported.

Elsewhere, a sporting goods factory in southern Hunan province also shut without warning last month, offering no compensation or social security benefits, leading hundreds of workers to go on strike, the outlet said.

Protests in China have increased since the COVID pandemic as the country’s economy has struggled to bounce back, Beijing-based activist Ji Feng, who was one of the student leaders during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, told Radio Free Asia.

Chinese authorities have acknowledged that the tariffs are impacting the country’s economy.

In  April, China’s factory activity showed its steepest contraction in 16 months, while new export orders dropped to their lowest levels in three years since the pandemic.Experts have grown fearful about President Trump’s aggressive tactics, however, the contraction in China’s industrial output and the protests show the president may still have leverage — despite Beijing raising its own duties on imports of US products to as high as 125%. 

China’s President Xi Jinping has also traveled to his neighboring countries in Southeast Asia as he looks to forge closer ties with Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia in response.

Simarlarly, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has reached out to his counterparts in the UK and the European Union.

President Trump has insisted things were going “fine with China”but it remains unclear whether any meeting between Trump and Xi will take place.

The president said he had no plans to speak to his Chinese counterpart this week during a conversation with reporters on board Air Force One on Sunday.

“But China and our people are talking about different things,” he added.