Chinese e-commerce platforms have removed T-shirts showing Donald Trump raising his fist after being shot.
The T-shirts went on sale within hours of the shoot and are available on popular e-commerce sites like Taobao and JD.com.
It’s unclear why the lists were removed, but China’s Internet is tightly controlled and content deemed “sensitive” is often removed.
The assassination incident at a rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday sparked widespread discussion online, and related tags were trending on Weibo, a platform like X.
Enterprising Chinese retailers acted quickly, with the first batch of T-shirts being printed and sold online in less than three hours after the shooting.
A cached image on Taobao, one of China’s largest e-commerce sites, shows the T-shirt is priced at 39 yuan ($9; £7).
A 25-year-old Taobao retailer told the South China Morning Post that she received more than 2,000 orders in just three hours after the T-shirts went on sale. Most come from China and the United States.
Trump has been the center of attention online in China for years, for both positive and negative reasons.
The trade war he waged with Beijing during his presidency angered the administration and many Chinese, but also found some support — including a group of Chinese immigrants in the United States who have been translating all of Trump’s tweets Via X account @Trump_Chinese. The account was launched in September 2018 and has amassed more than 344,000 followers over the years.
There is also a popular joke on the Internet, which is based on the Chinese translation of “Trump” as “Chuan”. He is often referred to as “Chuan Jianguo,” which translates as “Trump—Our Nation Builder,” mocking what they see as his role in helping put China on the path to becoming a superpower.
Chinese entrepreneurs have been cashing in on his interests for years.
Although T-shirts featuring Trump have been removed from shelves in China following the shootings, Chinese online retailers are still peddling a variety of Trump merchandise, including socks and mugs featuring his caricatures, as well as The red hat with the campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”.
Retailers around the world also took advantage of the assassination attempt.
Similar T-shirts are also sold on Lazada and Shopee, popular e-commerce platforms in Southeast Asia.
Lazada is part of Chinese tech giant Alibaba Group, which also owns Taobao.
Photos online also show similar T-shirts being sold in the United States. Some added captions – one read “Leaders Never Die” while another said “Bulletproof”.
