"The King has come up with new tariffs! Peasants, peasants, listen up!" run the lyrics to an up-tempo, electro-beat song on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, referring to comments from Vice President J.D. Vance who used the term "peasants" to refer to Chinese people earlier this month.

China’s economy showed its first big signs of damage from the trade war, as steep U.S. tariffs pummeled export orders and production at the country’s factories. A gauge of new export orders fell in April to its lowest reading since Covid-19 was ravaging the country in 2022,