Lingering at a day market for labourers in Panyu, an urban village on the outskirts of Guangzhou, Ms Qiu looks dejected. She is looking for a local factory that will hire her for the day to sew clothes – cheap tops and dresses that will be churned out on to China’s e-commerce platforms, or bundled up for export to western shoppers. But she is not having much luck.
“The whole industry is struggling, and now there is a high tariff on Chinese goods because of the trade war. Many foreign clients have decreased their orders from China,” she says, declining to give her first name.
