Chinese wholesalers talk about Trump tariffs : NPR

Almost any American store or home has goods in it made in China, but I never thought I could visit a single place where much of it is sold.

Yiwu International Trade City, a giant wholesale market in Yiwu, China, is the clearinghouse for millions of Chinese-made items.

The market does not generally handle high-end products like Apple iPhones. Rather, it is the source of stuff you find for sale beside the checkout counter in an American store, or in the drawers of your home — such as hairpins, stuffed animals, plastic toys, pots and pans, light bulbs, umbrellas, hammers and press-on nails.

All these products are made by factories in the region, shipped to Yiwu, and soon shipped onward to countries around the world.

The Yiwu market was worth exploring for its own sake, and gave us some insight into the various ways that China’s businesspeople are adjusting to U.S. tariffs. You can listen to our experience at the button above and read on below to meet four of the people our team encountered.

The Family Businesswoman

Wang Xiao Nan, left, stands with her mother, Wang Nan, who owns a wholesale hardware shop in one of the market’s buildings.

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Wang Nan operates a wholesale shop high in one of the buildings of the market. The products on the wall include spades, saws, caulk guns, garden shears, bolt cutters, garden hose nozzles, drill bits, levels — essentially anything made of metal that you’d find in a hardware store.

“I came to Yiwu in 2000,” she said. “After I saw all kinds of goods that I had never seen before, I didn’t want to leave.”

She started in printing, but her relatives manufacture hardware, and she became their distributor with a global business. While we visited, two men from Senegal came in to place an order. Many of their products go to a company in suburban New York City.

She wants to pass the business to her 25-year-old daughter, Wang Xiao Nan, or “Little Nan,” who has traveled to Texas and elsewhere to attend trade fairs or meet potential clients.

The mother quoted China’s Chairman Mao, who said that women hold up “half the sky.” She said in Yiwu, women hold up “most of the sky.”

The company aspires to sell even more tools in the U.S., even as tariffs take hold. Wang Nan told us that American customers always need tools, and they’ll just pay a little more. She is aiming to improve the packaging but not to lower her prices.

The Influencer

Zixin Li, known online as Luna, is a TikTok influencer who documents the Yiwu market.

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Retailers who can’t visit the Yiwu market may discover it online through TikTok influencers who work here. One is Zixin Li, known online as Luna.

Like a lot of people in Yiwu, she’s doing what she can to make a buck.

“Previously I did events planning, luxury events, in Shanghai, but you just earn too little,” she said. So she decided to explore “the land of opportunity,” which is how she describes the Yiwu market.

The Hairpin Seller

Nicole Zhang sells hair accessories at her storefront in the market.

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Nicole Zhang sells hairpins and claw clips. She and her husband started the business in 2011. And as with many people in this market, the modest storefront with its inexpensive products does not indicate the scale of their enterprise. Out in the countryside they have a warehouse filled with more stuff, and beyond that a factory that they own.

Zhang says Target asked her to share half the cost of the tariffs — which the U.S. first set at 10%, and then 20.

She tried to negotiate: “I said maybe 2 or 3% we can share from our profit,” she said.

The 3-D Toymaker

Zeng Hao owns a business that makes 3-D-printed plastic toys.

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We drove to one of the factories surrounding Yiwu—a business on the upper floor of an industrial building about an hour’s drive away. There we met the owner, Zeng Hao, 33.

Just last year he was trying to make his fortune in cryptocurrency. Then he started a new business, buying some 3-D printers, a common consumer model of the sort that anyone can buy on Amazon and operate at home.

He jammed 20 such printers into his apartment and began producing plastic toys. He used the profits to buy more printers, and then more — as if they were replicating.

Zeng Hao said 4,000 3D printers operate constantly to produce plastic toys.

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When we visited his factory, Zeng Hao said 4,000 printers were operating 24 hours a day, seven days per week.

A small number of human workers operate the machines. And in some cases, they decorate the toys — putting eyes on plastic animals, giving them a “soul,” Zeng said.

I asked Zeng Hao what he dreamed of doing when he was growing up. He said he doesn’t really have dreams.

“I have a life goal now. I do wanna expand my business in this sector because, you know, for our young people, we don’t have much opportunity today compared to our parents.”

Workers decorate 3D-printed toys, including giving the plastic animals eyes.

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In China’s economy, where young people like him struggle, he hopes to expand. And he’s selling everywhere, including the United States.

He says one of his American clients asked him to pick up half the cost of the new U.S. tariffs. He agreed — but he said it doesn’t matter much. Because even with the extra cost, he is raising his prices.

The radio version of this story was produced by Milton Guevara and Aowen Cao. It was edited by Reena Advani.