Within hours of former US President Donald Trump narrowly surviving an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally on Saturday, Chinese retailers seized the opportunity. T-shirts depicting a wounded Trump and featuring phrases he uttered immediately after the attack—such as “Fight! Fight! Fight!” and “For God and country”—flooded online shops in China. One T-shirt notably read, “Shooting makes me stronger,” accompanied by Trump’s image.
Chinese retailers were quicker than President Biden in reacting to the incident
The speed at which Chinese retailers acted was remarkable, outpacing even President Joe Biden’s response. While Biden made his first public comment at 8 PM local time, Chinese retailers had already listed the first batch of Trump-themed T-shirts on platforms like Taobao. Li Jinwei, a retailer quoted by the South China Morning Post (SCMP), said, “We put the T-shirts on Taobao as soon as we saw the news about the shooting, though we hadn’t even printed them, and within three hours we saw more than 2,000 orders from both China and the US.”
The rapid production and listing of these T-shirts were made possible by digital printing technology, capable of producing eight shirts per hour. This technological edge allowed Chinese sellers to swiftly monetize a significant moment in US political history.
Surge in political merchandise
The sale of election-related souvenirs has seen a notable increase this year. Data from Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform DHgate reported a 40% month-over-month growth since January, with a staggering 110% growth in March alone.
Official concerns
In the wake of the attack, the Chinese government expressed its concern for Trump’s safety. The Chinese foreign ministry released a statement on Sunday, saying, “President Xi Jinping has expressed his condolences to former President Trump.”