US President Donald Trump’s announcement this month of “liberation day” tariffs drew disbelief from America’s trading partners and mockery from Chinese internet users.

Viral, artificial intelligence-generated videos depicting American workers sweating over trainer and smartphone assembly lines circulated on Chinese social media, after Trump claimed that “jobs and factories will come roaring back” to the US as a result of the tariffs.

The videos highlighted that there is little chance of the US replicating the labour force advantages that turned China into the world’s factory over more than two decades — even if the tariffs, a declining working-age population and companies shifting production to other countries are now calling some of those advantages into question.