China’s state-controlled media has embraced the internet by producing AI-generated videos that showcase dancing robots and distressed consumers, aiming to criticize U.S. President Donald Trump and the tariffs he has implemented, which they claim pose a risk of high inflation and economic hardship for Americans.
In a video featured on CGTN, a state-run English-language broadcaster, an automated female voice laments, “‘Liberation Day’, you promised us the stars. But tariffs killed our cheap Chinese cars,” while displaying an image of a woman at a kitchen table, gazing at an empty fork.
The two-minute and 42-second video references Trump’s term “Liberation Day” in connection with his tariff announcement and includes a cautionary note: “Track is AI-generated. The debt crisis? 100 percent human-made.”
Another AI-generated video shared on the X.com account of the state-run news agency Xinhua presents a robot named TARIFF, which opts for self-destruction rather than obeying commands that would impose high tariffs, leading to “trade wars and unrest.”
China has strongly condemned the U.S. tariffs, which have resulted in the most significant stock market decline since the pandemic, and retaliated on Friday with its own import duties and export restrictions.
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Economists predict that consumers will face increased prices as a result of the trade conflict, potentially pushing the U.S. economy into a recession, while some U.S. trading partners are imposing their own tariffs on American goods—consequences that Trump has labeled a “disturbance.”
The CGTN video, featuring lyrics in both English and Chinese alongside visuals of car manufacturing plants and humanoid robots dancing in desolate streets, presents a more alarming perspective.
“You taxed each truck, you taxed each tire. Midwest burnin’ in your dumpster fire,” the automated voice proclaims.
