China sold several goods globally in 2025 compared to previous years, export saleswoman Aimee Chen says it was one of the hardest years of her roughly two-decade career.
After U.S. President Donald Trump raised the tariffs, the U.S. orders were supposed to be in a downward trend by a third. Chen’s pet products company moved to diversify geographies, following new and often lower-income markets like South America.
This response was reflected in the official trade policy of China, which resulted in a record of $1.2 trillion surplus in 2025 despite emerging trade barriers.
Interviews by Reuters with 14 salespeople on the ground in China trying to make a living in the diversification push of exports in China, while they reveal the costs and caveats behind the rosy headline trade numbers.
Four of the salespeople indicated that those orders in the new markets were usually of smaller volume and they were less profitable than the U.S sales, leading to lower commissions and wages.
According to government statistics, the profits of the industrial firms in China declined by 13.1 percent year-on-year in November, and this is the highest rate in more than a year.
However, most of the workers also reported the increased working hours, not to mention the intensity and confusion during the export boom. “I’m very anxious,” said Chen, citing that she had recently witnessed stress symptoms like hair loss and insomnia.
Mingwei Liu, director at the Center for Global Work and Employment at Rutgers University, stated that the strategy of exports by China to other markets was based on the companies seeking high amounts of low-cost orders.
He added that the successful companies tend to extend payment terms to their clients and have a greater risk of default. Liu said, “This market reorientation increases the labour intensity, the emotional burden, and income uncertainty faced by workers in export sales.”
Eventually, neither the commerce ministry nor the human resources ministry of China nor the office handling media queries of the cabinet responded to a request for comments.
The relationship between China and the U.S. has continued to become closer since Beijing became a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001. It has also resulted in an imbalanced relationship between them, where the economic policies of the former country promote production and consumption by the latter country.
A few retailers in America and manufacturers in China have reported having formed relationships so close that they could expect each other to know their needs and red lines, so that they could make deals almost automatically.
For instance, Chen mentioned her past interactions with U.S. retailers in largely glowing terms. She added that the clients in the largest economy in the world were often “easy-going” and signed deals quickly. She indicated that comparatively new market customers like to bargain over price.
Chinese exports to the U.S. decreased by 20 percent in 2025, but it is still one of the leading export destinations. Shipments increased 25.8 percent to Africa, 7.4 percent to Latin America, 13.4 percent to Southeast Asia, and 8.4 percent to the European Union last year.
Although there have been trade disagreements between Washington and Beijing in the past, the situation intensified when Trump assumed office at the beginning of 2025. He increased the tariff to more than 100 percent in April, and later took a compromise on a shaky truce.
His re-election plunged the export-oriented industrial complex of China into a rat race towards foreign demand in the world. Monica Chen, who has sold auto parts over a decade in the eastern Zhejiang province, had been relying for a long time on email to keep business flowing. But with U.S. tariffs in place, she’s had to fight harder to win business.
However, it would entail increasing business travel up to three times per month and cold-calling prospects. Monica said, “It’s very hard to develop new markets; they are basically saturated.”
Her company eventually retaliated by reducing its prices so as to undercut other Chinese companies that are also seeking buyers in the international market. Monica stated that the value of the orders made by the firm decreased by a third compared to 2024.
As the profits have slowed down, the business has exerted pressure on the sales agents. Cici Lv, who has been selling battery packs for electric bikes since 2022 in the southern city of Shenzhen, makes approximately 5,000 yuan (717) per month, not much more than employees in the factories that assemble these units.
But while workers’ shifts come to an end, Lv said she is constantly on the clock, talking to foreign clients. Another of her competitors, Rowan Wang, a sales representative with an exporter of agricultural machinery in eastern China, condensed the demands: “if we’re alive, we have to reply.”
Meanwhile, the five salespeople also detailed difficulties with handling less affluent customers in markets that they are not familiar with.
An analysis of 100 of the 100 most popular posts on the social media platform RedNote related to exports within the six months to mid-January identified 37 that complained of increased job stress. Lv added, “Sometimes it messes with your mind.”
Chen Bo, senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute, added, ” The hardship mentioned by the sales staff may be an early warning that China’s trade diversification success in 2025 could be hard to replicate in the coming years.
Since economists have always claimed that China needs to build up local markets to stop the cycle of deflation. Chen reported that the soft consumption drives Chinese producers to compete abroad, and they can be in direct competition, which generates revenues in the economy but destroys profits.
The academic added, “can’t maintain sustainable economic growth by relying on foreign markets.”
