China’s state media uses AI-generated videos to criticize Trump’s tariffs

China’s state-run media has used AI-generated videos on the internet, which show dancing robots and agitated customers, to criticize U.S. President Donald Trump and his tariff policies, claiming they will cause high inflation and economic hardship for Americans.

The U.S. tariffs have caused the largest stock market meltdown since the pandemic, and China has harshly criticized them. 

In response, it announced on April 4 that it would impose its export limitations and import taxes.

China’s state media uses AI to highlight the impact of Trump’s tariffs

One of the Chinese state media’s videos posted on the website of China’s CGTN, a state-run English-language broadcaster, showed a woman at a kitchen table staring at an empty fork while an automated female voice sings that on Liberation Day; Trump assured them of the stars. However, tariffs destroyed their low-cost Chinese cars.

Moreover, regarding Trump’s use of “Liberation Day” for the day of his tariff announcement, the two-minute, forty-two-second video was accompanied by a warning: “Track is AI-generated. The debt crisis is entirely human-made.”

Apart from this video, there was also another artificial intelligence-generated video, which opened a new tab on the state-run news agency Xinhua’s X.com page, representing a robot named TARIFF who decides to self-destruct instead of obeying its creator’s commands for high tariffs that caused “trade wars and unrest.”

In addition, the China Global Television Network (CGTN) video also painted a dire picture, with the lyrics — in Chinese and English — spread over images of car factories and humanoid robots dancing in streets that had been lit on fire. The robotic voice sang, “You imposed taxes on every truck and tire. Midwest burning in your dumpster fire.”

Economists also commented that Trump’s tariff policies and trade war would more likely lead to higher consumer prices and a slowdown in the United States economy.

Trump has called the impacts of some U.S. trade partners levying their own tariffs on American products a “disturbance.”

China’s recent action marks the beginning of a massive, never-ending trade war with the United States

In what state media referred to as “resolute measures” to protect the second-largest economy in the world, China responded to Donald Trump’s recent tariffs by imposing levies on all American goods and limiting exports of rare earths. 

On Friday, April 4, a public holiday in China, several ministers announced China’s actions, which followed Trump’s decision to raise tariffs on international trading partners, imposing the highest U.S. duties in a century.

Beginning on April 10, President Xi Jinping’s administration will apply a 34% tariff on all U.S. imports, equivalent to the amount of Trump’s alleged reciprocal tariffs on Chinese goods.

To add up, Beijing authorities announced additional measures, including immediate restrictions on exporting seven types of rare earths and halting poultry imports from two U.S. businesses. They also placed 11 U.S. defense firms on a list of untrustworthy entities and imposed export restrictions on 16 U.S. companies.

Furthermore, China launched an anti-dumping investigation into U.S. and Indian medical CT X-ray tubes, stopped importing sorghum from a U.S. business, and initiated an investigation into possible antitrust violations at DuPont China.

In response, Trump swiftly criticized Beijing’s response as the “wrong” move after the move dealt a new blow to international markets. Trump wrote on social media, “CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED — THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!”

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