Leaders around the world have responded to U.S. President Donald Trump’s shocking new tariffs that threaten to upend the global economy with stern words and denunciations. But Chinese state media have offered a different approach.
“‘Liberation Day,’ you promised us the stars,” sings a female-sounding voice over images of Trump. “But tariffs killed our cheap Chinese cars.”
A 2-minute, 42-second music video—titled “Look What You Taxed Us Through (An AI-Generated Song. A Life-Choking Reality)”—was published on April 3 by the Chinese state news network CGTN.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]“For many Americans, ‘Liberation Day’ hailed by Trump administration will mean shrinking paychecks and rising costs. Tariffs hit, wallets quit: low-income families take the hardest blow. As the market holds its breath, the toll is already undeniable. Numbers don’t lie. Neither does the cost of this so-called ‘fairness,’” CGTN captioned the video on its website. “Warning: Track is AI-generated. The debt crisis? 100 percent human-made.”
The lyrics, displayed in English and Chinese, appear to rebuke Trump’s tariffs from the point of view of the American consumer, and it’s addressed directly to the U.S. President. “Groceries cost a kidney, gas a lung. Your ‘deals’? Just hot air from your tongue,” the opening verse continues. “Thanks for the tariffs, and the mess you made,” the song ends, before the music video displays quotes from reports by the Yale Budget Lab and the Economist lambasting Trump’s tariffs.
Experts have warned that American consumers will bear much of the costs of Trump’s tariffs, which are taxes on imports, and U.S. recession indicators have risen since the White House’s April 2 “reciprocal” tariff rollout. At the same time, global markets have been shocked at a level not seen since the pandemic.
CGTN isn’t the only state media outlet to use AI to slam Trump’s trade policy. New China TV, the English-language social-media-focused brand of China’s official state news service Xinhua, also published on April 3 a three-minute, 18-second sci-fi short called “T.A.R.I.F.F.”
The film follows a robot named Technical Artificial Robot for International Fiscal Functions. “This is the story of T.A.R.I.F.F., an AIGC [artificial-intelligence-generated content] sci-fi thriller about the relentless weaponization of #Tariffs by the United States, and the psychological journey of a humanoid towards its eventual self-destruction. Please watch,” reads the video’s description on YouTube.
In the film, T.A.R.I.F.F. is booted up by what appears to be a nefarious U.S. government official named “Dr. Mallory.” T.A.R.I.F.F. identifies himself, saying: “My existence is defined by the execution of international fiscal actions, with the primary directive being the imposition of tax on foreign imports.” When asked what his ultimate purpose is, T.A.R.I.F.F. responds: “To protect the interests of the American people.”
“Exactly,” says Dr. Mallory. “We need you as a weapon to protect us, now more than ever.”
As the film goes on, T.A.R.I.F.F. implements “moderate tariffs” and finds initial positive results: “Industrial production up.” But when Dr. Mallory pushes the robot to “rev it up,” T.A.R.I.F.F. implements “aggressive tariffs.” The results: “unemployment rates rising, costs of living increasing, disruption of trade.”
“You are protecting us. This is what we need,” Dr. Mallory says. T.A.R.I.F.F. responds, understanding: “Protection through disruption. Taxation as weapon.”
“Yes, tariffs are a tool of power. You will protect our industries, our jobs, our economy,” Dr. Mallory says, appearing increasingly agitated. “But I can see the consequences of my actions,” says the robot. “The trade wars. The unrest. The people who suffer. And the retaliation.”
Spoiler alert: T.A.R.I.F.F. and the evil doctor argue about the “greater good”—”With my AI economic inference system,” T.A.R.I.F.F. asserts, “I can see … I have become the beginning of a chain reaction that will harm the very people I was meant to safeguard”—and the robot ultimately chooses to self-destruct, taking Dr. Mallory along with it.
On April 3, following Trump’s latest tariffs announcement, China’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs posted on social media a video featuring a mix of seemingly AI-generated images and real ones, to the soundtrack of John Lennon’s “Imagine” and USA for Africa’s “We Are the World.” It asked the question: “What kind of world do you want to live in?” offering the choice between our “imperfect world” with things like “greed” and “tariffs” and an alternative utopia with “shared prosperity” and “global solidarity.”
To be sure, the latter is certainly not the reality in China. And for now, it appears far from possible for the world.
Beijing has made its displeasure with Trump’s tariffs—which began targeting China in his first term—well known. The latest “reciprocal” rate of 34% comes on top of 20% levies announced earlier this year. Beijing has over the years implemented “tit-for-tat” countermeasures and has vowed to continue as long as the trade war persists, warning earlier this year: “If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight until the end.”
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