‘You Think We’re Afraid of America?’

The sewing machines had been switched off at Kang Yang Apparel, a women’s-clothing manufacturer in the southeastern-Chinese city of Yiwu, so it was easy to hear the word ricocheting across the factory floor: Chuanpu, a Mandarin nickname for Trump. When I visited, the United States had just raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 145 percent. The workers at Kang Yang did not seem intimidated. When I approached a group of idle factory men, their replies were bellicose: “Hold strong!”