T-shirts attacking Trump go on sale in China after US rally shooting

Shortly after Donald Trump was targeted by a gunman during a rally in Pennsylvania, Chinese online retailers were quick to sell commemorative T-shirts featuring pictures depicting the aftermath of the assassination attempt on the former president. As reported by TOI, Taobao seller Li Jinwei said, “As soon as we saw the news of the shooting, we listed the T-shirts on Taobao even though they weren’t even printed, and within three hours we had over 2,000 orders from both China and the US.”

Rapid production and distribution is made possible by digital printing technology, allowing T-shirts to be printed and sold quickly: companies such as Xinflying Digital Printing Production in Guangdong province reported that they could print eight election-themed T-shirts per hour using digital printing presses.

Data from DHgate, a Chinese cross-border e-commerce platform, showed a significant increase in trade volume of election-related souvenirs, increasing by more than 40% month-on-month since January and recording a staggering spike of 110% in March alone.

The speed at which these T-shirts with images related to the Trump shooting were made highlights the efficiency of digital printing: Factories downloaded the relevant images and used their digital printing capabilities to rapidly produce the goods. For example, Li’s factory in Hebei province was able to turn out a T-shirt in about a minute.

Input from TOI

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