China releases viral TikTok videos exposes how European 'luxury' items are really made

The trade war between President Donald Trump’s 145% tariff increase on Chinese goods and China's reciprocal 125% tariff increase on goods from the United States has created a stir throughout the world. While governments go over what this means for their respective economies, the TikTok community and other social media groups made up of regular consumers and small businesses from both countries are sharing the open-secrets regarding various luxury items.

Many of these videos are from Chinese manufacturers revealing something many already know: that many of their favorite luxury European brands are actually made in China, are packaged in Europe for distribution, then sold at a heavily marked-up price. However, these videos are showing the math and how much disparity there is between the actual cost of manufacturing versus the price tag at a branded store.

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“I thought this was common knowledge already,” wrote @PineappleCervix on X.

“Yeah it's been (to an extent) but this is the first time the Chinese are ACTUALLY CONFIRMING it,” wrote @thecreativexx in response.

This information has gotten traction not just from consumers, but small business owners in both the United States and China. Some Chinese TikTokers are asking American consumers to skip the middleman and buy directly from their factory at a cheaper price.

The comments regarding this influx of revealing videos are varied, with people saying this isn’t really new information and others thinking this is a big deal.

“Now with social media (and TikTok especially), factory-level transparency is going viral. What was once niche supply chain knowledge is now mainstream content,” wrote @LoveleeBubblee on X.

This isn’t the first time that Chinese-made goods and knockoffs were sold directly to U.S. consumers. Americans have taken advantage of Chinese online retailers such as Temu and Shein for direct and duty-free deliveries of a great number of different products from toys to handbags to clothing. While part of Trump’s tariff closes that loophole (among many others), the information from these Chinese manufacturers via TikTok and other means has been seen as individual factories behind dozens of different U.S. and European name brands promoting even more direct sales without using Temu, Alibaba, or any other similar third party distributor.

Small European and American businesses have also been kneecapped by the tariffs since many of them have their products manufactured in China then shipped to the U.S., or they order parts from Chinese factories. While the focus of these Chinese TikTok videos has been to educate consumers, there have been small business owners taking to the Internet to explain to their followers and customers why they have to now raise prices on their products. Many of them feel that they have no choice, with them arguing that they either cannot find quality made products, that the cost of American or European-made products are too expensive, or that there just aren't any factories in any other countries that can make what they’re looking for.

At this point, the governments of both China and the United States are figuring out a deal. Meanwhile, social media has become a platform for people in the manufacturing, small business, and general consumer camps to get honest about the actual cost of "luxury" items and unite in the hope that something gets figured out in a way that all three camps can benefit.