Women in blue fabrics sew the latest touches into velvety pink piglets and orange stuffed foxes, before flying them into giant piles at Maria Liao’s plant in southern China. They will be transported and sent to the United States, where many of Ms Liao’s customers are based.
The factory is quieter than it should. The orders are declining this year, as Ms Liao’s clients are hesitant in view of a succession of invoices that President Trump has put on China products, another round of which will probably come this week. Tasks have increased small businesses in the United States that depend on the factories in China to build the things they are planning and selling.
Invoices also resonate on the other side of the ocean in two -storey factories such as Ms Liao’s DongGuan Yarunli games.
“We are helpless,” said Ms Liao, 33, who manages the plant with her older brother. “I don’t know what the next quarter will be.”
Mrs Liao is one of the millions of people in China who sew, cut, build and assemble the toys, clothes, tools and cars used by Americans daily. The work they make allows companies to do and sell things to households in the United States quickly and cheaply.
With the global trade surplus of $ 1 trillion, China remains worldwide production. But Ms Liao’s struggles show that Mr Trump’s invoices, which include a 20 % basis in all goods, question a long -standing truth in China. The United States may no longer be the main destination for products manufactured by small businesses such as Mrs Liao’s.
One of its customers, selling game dolls based on a book, recently requested a 20 % reduction in prices – something Mrs Liao said she could not host. It makes a 30 % profit margin in the goods it produces, a pillow that allows the cost of costing material and work. Such a sharp cut of prices will eliminate most of its profit, making it difficult to continue operation, Ms Liao said.
Still, it wasn’t easy to say no. Last year, this client ordered 25,000 game dolls, one of the largest individual orders received by Mrs Liao. This year, total orders are reduced by almost 30 %, he said.
For hard working Chinese companies that have long been tied up with the demands of American customers, Mr Trump’s goal to cut off trade with China forces a more urgent question: what next?
It is difficult for Ms. Liao to answer. For beginners, US companies make up 30 % of its export companies. It also appreciates the cultural benefits it has gained from trade with the United States.
Working with US businesses has changed its prospects for everything from how it conducts business in how it sees its position in society.
Ms. Liao started her factory with her brother in 2019 after five years of working at another toy factory and helping to find new customers. He said it was more cautious when interacting with customers. But then he started working with American business owners who were immediate and open to everything, until their personal lives.
A customer in particular had an excellent influence on her life, Ms Liao said.
Phoenix based on Erica Campbell’s Phoenix The company, Be Heart, is a client of Ms Liao from the beginning. Ms Campbell’s commands for Jesus and Mary Dolls have created one tenth of Ms Liao’s work.
At that time, Ms Liao and Ms Campbell, 36, gave birth to their first children. Their personal lives have become interconnected with talks on business partnerships and product plans. Mrs Liao said it was the first time she knew a woman weighing family duties and her own business. In their conversations, Mrs Liao said that Ms Campbell would sometimes describe the time in the middle of the night to design a plan for the next product.
Seeing a woman juggle work and her home gave her trust to continue working after her daughter was born, Ms Liao said.
A few months ago, Ms Liao sent messages to Ms Campbell to tell her that the business was really slow, weighted the deterioration of commercial tensions between China and the United States. He was trying to understand how to keep things in life. In response, Ms Campbell shared her own challenges. “I’m flaming,” wrote Ms Campbell. One of her employees had just left unexpectedly and Ms Campbell had recently given birth to her third child. “Motherhood kicks my end,” he said.
Then he had an idea. Mrs Liao could undertake some of the projects done by the employee, supplying materials and communicating with other factories in China. “He did it so well,” said Ms Campbell.
When Mrs Campbell finally put the Christmas production of 2025 with Ms. Liao a few weeks ago, it was half the size of her order last year due to the uncertainty about invoices and the recession, something Mr Trump said it was possible.
At present, Mrs Campbell plans to take over most of the invoices and spend some costs to her customers. But if invoices exceed 20 %, he said, he should talk to Ms. Liao what to do next.
It will be a difficult conversation. Mrs Campbell said she did not feel comfortable asking her Chinese partner to take on the costs Mrs Liao had no control.
“We are often dealing with the same factors of small business anxiety and we had to tour so much,” Ms Campbell said. “People want to create this gap, but we are ourselves and were born just in different countries.”
For Ms. Liao, if everyone increases their costs to soften the invoice hit, it could lead to a situation that would prefer not to deal with: “We may not be able to serve American customers.”
Lee He contributed research.
