A new survey by a Financial Times research unit has shown that the majority of Chinese consumers are willing to boycott the purchase of US goods should an all-out trade war emerge between Beijing and Washington.
The survey, which involved 2,000 respondents from 300 cities, found that 54% of people would “probably” or “definitely” stop buying goods originating in the US “in the event of a trade war”. Only 13% said they were not willing to do so.
Those with the highest willingness to forego US products were aged between 25 and 29, on lower-middle incomes and from smaller cities.
The survey was conducted mostly before the Trump administration signed in 25% tariffs on $34 billion of Chinese goods on July 6th, with Beijing imposing matching retaliatory measures.
Although Beijing has yet to call for any boycotting of US goods, it has previously done so on South Korean and Japanese products after geopolitical disagreements with the countries.