How do Chinese Netizens Feel about the Tariffs?

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You heard it straight from the White House: the tariffs are back. While the response from Beijing officialdom was predictable, how are Chinese netizens feeling? 

Given the unreliability of publicly available data from government and news sources that parrot the propaganda, it’s a difficult question to answer. But when the FilterLabs team took a look using our data platform Talisman, which incorporates and analyzes millions of data points across China, a picture started to emerge. 

• Tariffs are the story. When we were looking into broader Chinese sentiment around global economic issues this week, using query terms like “BRICS,” “trade,” and “WTO,” Talisman results showed that, hands down, the tariffs were the number one issue driving negative sentiment in the short-term—across all media, including news outlets as well as blogs, social media platforms, and other places where Chinese netizens engage in online discourse. 
• Outrage on social media. While state-sponsored coverage was negative, Chinese netizens on social media sites like Weibo were furious. A particularly illustrative (and colorful) blog post referred to President Trump as a “headless fly.”

Negative reactions to tariffs are, of course, unsurprising. But they could also be a clue to how Chinese consumers feel about the global economy during an increasingly contentious era. And it’s clear that Xi is worried.

We’ll be watching closely to see how the tariffs and other economic issues (including those facing China domestically like population aging and housing headwinds) influence consumer sentiment and behavior in the weeks and months ahead. Let us know if you want to follow along.

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