Indonesia has asked both Google and Apple to block Chinese fast fashion e-commerce firm Temu from their app stores, a move designed to protect local small businesses at risk of being undercut by Temu sellers. The ban is a pre-emptive one, as there aren’t yet any records of transactions in the country, but signals another difficulty for Chinese businesses going abroad.
It appears that an increasing number of countries are realising the dangers posed by China’s mass-production machine, and the EU’s tariffs on China EVs are another good example. Exports are currently crucial to keeping the Chinese economy on an even keel, as consumer confidence and spending don’t appear to be on the up any time soon, but countries around the world are beginning to push back, worried about the impact of Chinese “dumping” on their economies. The WTO is not going to be much use in dealing with this, but individual countries are increasingly saying they’ve had enough.