American brands are quickly losing their previously firm grip on China as growing nationalism and increasing trade tensions with the US drive a surge in local consumer loyalty to Chinese products, the Wall Street Journal said. From tech to entertainment, Chinese citizens like Cao Lili, a mother of three from Sichuan, are abandoning Western names for domestic alternatives. Cao, who once drove a Honda and used an iPhone, now drives a Li Auto EV and owns a Huawei phone. Her support for local products even extended to watching the patriotic animated film “Ne Zha 2” twice, contributing to its $2.1 billion box office haul.
The change follows as the Trump administration's broad tariffs risk pushing Chinese consumers further away. Backlash, Chinese businesses are initiating nationalistic efforts to drive foreign products off the shelves. Supermarket retailer Yonghui, for example, encouraged companies to stock shelves with "Made in China" items, while Beijing has already started to limit imports of American films before Hollywood's peak summer season.
Former favourites among American brands such as Nike, Starbucks, Apple, and Tesla are now struggling to see falling sales in China. Figures for March indicated Nike's China sales were off 17% year-on-year, while Tesla domestic deliveries fell 12%. Even luxury brands such as Porsche and BMW reported declining demand in the second-largest economy in the world.
Concurrently, domestic brands such as Luckin Coffee, Anta sportswear, and fast food chain Mixue are doing well. The nationalistic momentum is reflected in government-sponsored initiatives such as "collective watching" screenings of "Ne Zha 2," where audiences were even invited to sing the national anthem in cinemas.
American cultural exports, especially films, have been in the crosshairs. Hollywood has depended on China's box office for years, with blockbusters such as "Avengers: Endgame" once earning more than $600 million. But success was costly — including concessions to Chinese censorship requests and political pressure. Today, as tensions increase, American movies are subject to tighter quotas or postponements, with Brad Pitt's forthcoming "F1" film languishing under regulatory review.
The chill towards US entertainment is part of a wider fall in American soft power in China. While the Chinese government has signalled that major Hollywood movies might continue to be shown, the symbolic withdrawal from American pop culture is evident.
For younger professionals such as Chris Jia, a 29-year-old designer in Fujian, the transition is second nature. His bookshelves might still be cluttered with American action figures from his youth, but his everyday life is controlled by Chinese brands. "We don't really depend on American products," he said, mirroring the sentiment among his generation.
As people consume with patriotic fervour and indigenous firms innovate furiously, the US brand has to struggle more than with an immediate sag in sales — they have to cope with an attitudinal paradigm shift.
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