“Chu kou zhuan nei xiao” was a popular phrase in China during the 1980s and 1990s. It means “goods meant for exporting sold domestically.” Retailers and big stores often used this label to promote their products, and customers were drawn to items marked with that label. Why? These goods were often higher in quality than similar products made for the domestic market, yet significantly cheaper than imported items from foreign countries.
“Mom, I’m hungry”
As a child, I loved running around with the neighbor’s children in the courtyard and nearby alleys. Long before lunch or dinner, we would rush home saying, “Mom, I’m hungry.” Almost every child got the same response: “Wait until dinner.” We didn’t have snacks then partly because we were poor, and partly because grocery stores had very few, if any, to offer.
This was during Mao’s regime. After the Communist Party took control of China in 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong promoted hatred toward the United States and other Western nations. He urged the Chinese people to live in complete self-reliance, insisting that they needed no foreign goods. Between 1959 and 1961, an estimated 15 to 45 million people died from starvation. Mao even rejected international aid from the U.S. and other countries.
My mother used to look at me and say, “Your skin would be so much better if I had eaten apples while pregnant with you.” When she was carrying me, she craved apples—but there were none at the grocery stores. Mao had told the Chinese people that, in the name of national independence, apples grown by Chinese farmers were being used to repay foreign debts.
“Black Sister” Toothpaste
After Mao’s death, China began to open its doors just a tiny, tiny bit to Western countries. In the 1980s, when I was in college, we had an American professor who taught spoken English. One of the assignments she gave us was to create a new brand of toothpaste and design a commercial for it. We found the task surprisingly difficult. At the time, the Communist Party still controlled both production and the market—everyone used the same brand of toothpaste, and we had no concept of marketing.
Around then, Deng Xiaoping had taken power and introduced economic reforms, allowing limited competition among domestic manufacturers. Although American brands like Colgate and Crest were unfamiliar to us, a new Chinese toothpaste called “Black Sister” had become quite popular. Naturally, most of the class chose it for the assignment.
Our American professor, however, was visibly upset by the brand name and told us it couldn’t be used in our commercials. She didn’t explain why. Only years after I moved to the United States, did I realize it had to do with political correctness. Sadly, most Chinese are unaware of such nuances, as government censorship and information control continue to isolate the public from the rest of the world.
Joint-Venture Cars
By the 1990s, foreign companies were increasingly investing in China. Yet the Chinese government forbade them from operating independently. Instead, firms were required to form joint ventures—where Chinese partners held at least 51% ownership, and foreign partners, who provided the capital and technology, held no more than 49%. This structure ensured the Chinese government retained control.
Cars produced through these joint ventures—such as the Volkswagen Jetta or the GM Buick—became highly desirable. For many young Chinese, owning one symbolized success and modernity. But we also knew these models were inferior to the same brands sold abroad. Privately, many wished they could buy real foreign cars—those made in the U.S. or Europe.
Dreams of the WTO
In the mid-1990s, the Chinese Communist Party began promoting its bid to join the World Trade Organization (WTO). Young people were filled with hope. We believed WTO membership would make high-quality foreign goods more accessible and affordable.
I remember celebrating New Year’s Eve in 2000, walking alongside thousands of hopeful youths down the main avenue in Beijing, passing through Tiananmen Square. On December 11, 2001, China officially joined the WTO, becoming its 143rd member after 15 years of negotiations.
Yet for most Chinese citizens, little changed. We still bought joint-venture cars and goods made for domestic consumption. Occasionally, we could find exported products redirected back into the domestic market—but usually because they had failed to meet international standards. WTO membership raised hopes, but for many consumers, those hopes never materialized.
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr-yC7zP7hM)
The Irony of “Made in China” Shopping in America
In 2010, I met a group of Chinese tourists at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. They weren’t interested in monuments—they wanted directions to a shopping mall to buy iPads and iPhones. I was stunned. “But those are made in China,” I said. Why not buy them at home?
They replied, “In China, they cost three times more than here.”
In 2023, I sent my parents some herbal supplements from the U.S. to help them recover from COVID-19. Three months later, I asked them whether the package had arrived. My father explained that the Chinese government had rerouted all international deliveries to centralized collection centers. Families had to travel long distances to retrieve their packages—and pay steep tariffs. “Please don’t send us anything from the States again,” he said quietly.
Xi’s Trade Retaliation: The Tragedy of Chinese People
China’s access to the World Trade Organization (WTO) was intended to promote economic reform and integrate the country into the global trading system. In 2000, President Bill Clinton urged Congress to approve the U.S.-China trade agreement and support China’s entry into the WTO, arguing that increased trade would benefit the United States economically. He described the deal as “the equivalent of a one-way street” in America’s favor. Western leaders believed that WTO membership would encourage China’s transition to a market-oriented economy and foster its commitment to global trade norms and governance.
The outcomes, however, have diverged sharply from those expectations. While China agreed to comply with WTO rules—including lowering tariffs and protecting intellectual property rights—it has frequently been accused of violating those commitments. t the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, China has ripped off the U.S. through practices like currency manipulation, intellectual property theft, and restricting market access for American companies.
President Trump has criticized China for imposing higher tariffs on U.S. exports compared to U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. In 2025, the Trump administration started to correct trade imbalances and ensure fairness in international trade. President Trump says, “From now on, we expect trading relationships to be fair and to be reciprocal.”
As trade tensions escalated, the Chinese regime responded with heavier tariffs on American goods. The Chinese Communist officials shamelessly bragged about their moves as “nationalistic heroic deeds,” but the real cost is being borne by the Chinese people. There are reports of increasing numbers of businesses shutting down, rising unemployment, and growing numbers of young people facing homelessness.
The Chinese Communist Party runs a thug government. It cheats in global trade, ignores international norms, and most tragically, denies 1.5 billion Chinese citizens their basic rights as consumers. Strategically, the current trade war may not only represent a moment of economic liberation for the United States, as President Trump has described, but could also serve as a turning point for China akin to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
