Chinese retiree writes anti-US trade war hit song
- Anthem set to the tune of a 1960s anti-Japanese chant takes off online
- Broadcasters also switch programme schedules as China-US talks falter
Perhaps nothing captures the growing anti-US sentiment in China better than a song about the trade war that is going viral in Beijing: “If the perpetrator wants to fight, we will beat him out of his wits.”
This privately produced song has more than 100,000 views on WeChat and is just one of many signs of brewing anti-American sentiment on Chinese social media as trade talks falter.
State media has carried commentaries urging unified resistance to foreign pressure, including an editorial from the nationalist Global Times calling the trade dispute a “people’s war” and a threat to all of China.
Even seafood hasn’t escaped sharper rhetoric. Guangdong province’s Communist Party Youth League issued a WeChat post calling for China to eat more tilapia – a farmed fish now subject to higher US tariffs.
The song, simply called Trade War, is set to the tune of an anti-Japanese song from the 1960s film Tunnel War in which a Chinese town defends itself from invasion.
It begins with a male chorus singing “Trade war! Trade War! Not afraid of the outrageous challenge! Not afraid of the outrageous challenge! A trade war is happening over the Pacific Ocean!”