BREAKING: China Is Using TikTok to Wage a Trade War Against the United States

Behind TikTok trends lies a covert effort by China to reshape U.S. consumer behavior and evade America’s tariff policies.

May 02, 2025

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About the Author

Dr. Colin Wright is the CEO/Editor-in-Chief of Reality’s Last Stand, an evolutionary biology PhD, and Manhattan Institute Fellow. His writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Times, the New York Post, Newsweek, City Journal, Quillette, Queer Majority, and other major news outlets and peer-reviewed journals.

For years, U.S. lawmakers have warned about the national security risks posed by TikTok, the hugely popular social media platform owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance. Successive presidential administrations have floated bans, divestitures, or forced sales of the app, citing concerns over data privacy, spying, and Chinese propaganda. But despite multiple hearings and bipartisan concern, not much has actually been done. Today, TikTok is still going strong in the U.S., with over 170 million users and growing influence on American culture, politics, and business.

Early research from the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) confirmed some of these fears, showing that TikTok’s algorithm suppresses content critical of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) while boosting pro-CCP content.

But a new NCRI report—shared with Reality’s Last Stand—reveals it’s gone even further: TikTok is being actively weaponized in a trade war against the United States.

Following President Trump’s April 2025 tariffs on Chinese imports, TikTok was suddenly flooded with well-produced videos telling Americans to “cut out the middleman” and buy straight from Chinese sellers. What they don’t show is how this effort hides the products’ true origin. Sellers use shady tricks like routing shipments through third countries (called “triangle shipping”) and setting up shell companies to dodge tariffs. Many packages are also mislabeled to sneak through customs.

According to NCRI, this is all part of a coordinated CCP effort called the “Shopping in China” campaign. It’s not just a marketing push—it’s a full-blown psychological operation that uses TikTok’s algorithm and state-backed influencers to evade tariffs by messing with how Americans think, shop, and spend.

Coordinated Campaigns Masquerading as Organic Trends

NCRI's new intelligence brief shows how the Chinese government is using TikTok not just as a content platform, but to shape public opinion through algorithm manipulation. According to NCRI, the viral push began in earnest on April 10, 2025—a week after the U.S. announced its new tariffs—when TikTok saw a huge spike in #sourcing content. Other platforms like Instagram didn’t exhibit a similar jump, showing that TikTok was the main driver of the campaign.

Just a few days later, on April 13, China’s Ministry of Commerce launched its “Shopping in China” campaign. It encouraged global shoppers to buy replica and counterfeit products (often passed off as the real thing) directly from Chinese sellers, while also promoting Chinese culture. The launch lined up with China’s biggest trade event, the Canton Fair, where several popular #sourcing influencers were physically present.

The campaign also frames Chinese manufacturers as transparent and fair, while casting Western brands as deceptive and exploitative. According to the report:

By framing Chinese suppliers as the authentic and fair alternative to alleged Western exploitation, the campaign taps into consumer resentment and distrust toward Western corporations, subtly shifting blame and deflecting scrutiny away from Chinese commercial practices.

The message didn’t stay on TikTok for long. On X, both influencers and bot-like accounts started reposting TikTok videos using identical phrases like, “China just killed the luxury goods industry. It’s gone, there’s no coming back.” The repeated wording and well-timed posts point to a coordinated effort, not something that happened organically.

At the same time, Reddit saw a spike in conversations about buying goods directly from China. Big communities like r/FashionReps, r/1688Reps, and r/RepladiesDesigner—home to millions of users—became hotspots for sharing tips and tricks on sourcing strategies to get cheap knockoffs and deals. People posted guides on how to dodge tariffs, use triangle shipping, and communicate with Chinese sellers, creating a kind of peer-to-peer network that helped spread and reinforce the campaign’s core messages.

This wasn’t some grassroots trend. It was a carefully planned campaign, blending real user interest with influencers and bot-like accounts to boost visibility and push the message across multiple platforms.

Since the campaign took off, TikTok videos with the hashtag #sourcing have racked up tens of millions of views, and for a time, Alibaba—China’s biggest e-commerce site—was the most downloaded app in the U.S.

Algorithmic Manipulation and Psychological Targeting

To understand how TikTok's algorithm amplifies this content, NCRI researchers conducted a set of controlled tests. They created ten fake user accounts: nine that interacted with videos using the hashtag #sourcing, and one control account that engaged with NHL hockey content. Each account first watched 20 neutral videos to set a baseline. Then, the test accounts started watching #sourcing content, while the control stuck with hockey.

The results were striking. On average, nearly 19 percent of the videos shown to the #sourcing accounts afterward were directly related to Chinese sourcing. Five of the nine accounts reached or exceeded 20 percent saturation, with an average of 18.6 percent. Meanwhile, the hockey-focused control account—despite showing real-world interest in the Stanley Cup playoffs—saw only 4.2 percent hockey-related content.

To establish a cross-platform comparison, NCRI ran the same test on YouTube. The difference was huge. YouTube’s algorithm gave the control account a feed with 19.2 percent NHL content—much more than TikTok’s 4.2 percent—while #sourcing content reached only 8.3 percent saturation, compared to TikTok’s average of 18.6 percent.

In other words, YouTube’s algorithm more faithfully reflected real-world interest in trending topics like professional sports, and showed much less susceptibility to artificial amplification of niche or politicized content like #sourcing. That kind of tilt suggests TikTok’s algorithm is specifically tuned to promote messages that benefit the CCP.

TikTok as a CCP-Curated Propaganda Tool

Unlike other platforms, TikTok is not accessible to ordinary Chinese citizens. Its Chinese equivalent, Douyin, is a separate app. So when you see Chinese influencers on TikTok, it’s not by accident—they’re approved or connected to groups the Chinese government allows.

As NCRI’s report notes, the top influencer videos promoting sourcing from China were not just filmed at CCP-sponsored events like the Canton Fair but were often hosted by individuals working directly for Chinese intelligence-linked marketing firms.

These influencers often used identical scripts, such as: “Stop buying on Alibaba, you’ll only meet the middleman who raises prices sky-high. Here are [n] better websites...” When dozens of accounts repeat the same message, it starts to look a lot less like a trend and a lot more like a state-coordinated media operation.

Evasion Tactics and Fraud

China’s campaign isn’t just about changing how Americans shop, it’s also helping businesses get around U.S. import tariffs. The NCRI report outlines several shady tactics being used:

Triangle shipping: Products are sent through a third country—like Jamaica—before arriving in the U.S., to obscure their Chinese origin.
Invoice fraud: Mislabeling shipments to fall below the “de minimis” threshold and thus avoiding extra scrutiny from customs.
Shell companies and deceptive advertising: Some sellers use AI-generated deepfakes of Americans to make Chinese goods seem local.
Fake reviews: They pump up ratings on sites like TrustPilot, even though real users report scams and delivery issues.

Take @nihaojewelry, for example. This Chinese jewelry and clothing wholesaler shifted gears right after the new tariffs were announced in April 2025. Before that, their videos featured AI-generated American influencers but didn’t get much attention—averaging around 11,000 views. Then they switched to a new style of video: warehouse walk-throughs tagged with #sourcing, hosted by a Chinese influencer. Views then shot up to an average of 780,000 per video.

At the same time, users on TrustPilot accused the company of shady tactics, like routing packages through Jamaica and mislabeling shipments to dodge tariffs.

These changes in both content strategy and shipping practices coincided precisely with the timeline of the “Shopping in China” campaign’s launch, strongly suggesting that @nihaojewelry’s rise was fueled not by organic popularity, but by TikTok’s algorithmic amplification to further state-backed objectives.

A Threat to National Security

The latest investigation from NCRI reveals something alarming: we’re not just dealing with a viral marketing trend, we’re facing a coordinated effort by the Chinese government to mess with America’s economy and shape public opinion. This isn’t just about selling cheap stuff online. It’s digital warfare.

With over 170 million users in the United States, TikTok represents one of the most powerful propaganda tools ever unleashed inside a foreign democracy. The CCP is using it to sway opinions, influence what Americans buy, and dodge U.S. trade penalties using a mix of shady tactics—like propaganda, algorithmic manipulation, and fraud.

Dragging our feet on banning or forcing a sale of TikTok only gives these operations more time to grow. NCRI’s report makes it clear: TikTok isn’t just some harmless app. It’s a weapon.

This isn’t about dance videos anymore. It’s about protecting national security, our economy, and the information we rely on as citizens. TikTok must be dealt with—not tomorrow, not after the next election, but right now.

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