Former US President Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, with the Associated Press releasing a photo at 6:31 PM that day, just 16 minutes later. By 8:40 PM, Chinese manufacturers had already listed Trump-themed T-shirts on Taobao, showcasing their rapid response. Li Jinwei, a Taobao seller, reported over 2,000 orders within three hours. This quick production and sale highlight the strong demand for election-themed merchandise and the efficiency of Chinese manufacturing.
At around 6:15 PM local time on 12th June 2024, in the US state of Pennsylvania, former President Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt. Just 16 minutes later, at 6:31 PM, the Associated Press released an iconic photo of a fist-waving Trump.
President Biden’s first public comment on the shooting came at around 8:00 PM, by which time Chinese manufacturers were already in action. The first batch of T-shirts was sold on Taobao, a popular Chinese e-commerce platform, at 8:40 PM—before most governments had even responded.
Li Jinwei, a 25-year-old Taobao seller, had her T-shirts listed online by breakfast time in China. “We put the T-shirts on Taobao as soon as we saw the news about the shooting, even though we hadn’t printed them yet. Within three hours, we had over 2,000 orders from both China and the US,” she said.
Taobao is owned by Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post. Li’s factory, located in the northern province of Hebei, can produce a T-shirt in about one minute by simply downloading an image and pressing print.
“For this year’s US presidential election, we only made Trump souvenirs since he has a higher chance of winning and is popular among Chinese netizens,” Li added.
Demand for “election- and rally-themed” custom T-shirts is strong in the US market, according to Allen Yao, co-founder of Xinflying Digital Printing Production based in Guangdong. Earlier this year, Yao opened a fully automated factory in California with a daily production capacity of around 3,000 T-shirts, expected to increase to 8,000 by next month. “The T-shirts are imported from Vietnam and stored in US warehouses. The production speed is very fast,” Yao said.
A digital printing machine can print 27 square meters (290 sq ft), or about eight election-related T-shirts, in an hour, which can be immediately put on the shelves for sale in California. “Demand is so strong, we just can’t produce enough,” Yao noted.
The company plans to open a new factory on the US East Coast next year, increasing daily production capacity to 30,000 items.
Source: South China Morning Post
