China's economy has been a house of cards for some time now, but President Trump's tariffs may be knocking that house of cards down. Case in point: Chinese factories are closing down, and Chinese workers are furious. Laid-off Chinese workers are taking to the streets to demand re-employment and back pay.

Protests from furious factory workers in China demanding back pay are spreading across the country after President Trump’s tariffs on Chinese imports began impacting the communist nation’s economy.

Unrest has been reported across the country as workers have taken to the streets protesting unpaid wages and challenging unfair dismissals following the closures of factories squeezed by US tariffs, according to Radio Free Asia.

Chinese industry leaders, meanwhile, are “extremely anxious” about the steep duties, with many telling factories and suppliers to halt or delay supplies, Wang Xin, head of an industry group representing more than 2,000 Chinese merchants told the Financial Times.

"Extremely anxious" can probably be safely translated as "on the verge of panic." The problem is nationwide:

At least 16 million jobs across many industries in China are at risk due to President Trump’s imposing of a 145% tariff on Chinese imports, according to analysis from Goldman Sachs.

“It’s not easy at the moment,” a 26-year-old toy factory worker told the FT. His employer, in the Chinese city of Zhejiang, mostly sells to the US, and management recently forced workers to take two weeks off unpaid in the face of the tariffs.

Last month, construction workers threatened to throw themselves off the buildings they were working on unless they received their unpaid wages in the northeastern city of Tongliao, Radio Free Asia reported.

Elsewhere, a sporting goods factory in southern Hunan province also shut without warning last month, offering no compensation or social security benefits, leading hundreds of workers to go on strike, the outlet said.

In China, we should note, the social safety net we take so much for granted is nearly non-existent. Workers who lose their jobs are, as we used to say back in the day, squat outta luck. Taking to the streets is their only recourse; it's not out of the realm of possibility that, in the weeks to come, we may see Tiananmen Square-style protests.

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Despite the problems the Trump tariffs are causing some American companies and workers, it sure is looking like China is getting hit harder. This is added confirmation of what the president has been saying - and I have been writing - for some time, specifically that China needs us more than we need them. The American economy is still considerably larger than China's, and we have vastly better protections for workers affected by economic downturns.

And here's the thing: Ultimately, every government exists only with the consent of the governed. Even totalitarian governments have, throughout history, been prone to falling to peasant revolts, mostly because there are just so darn many peasants. The Chinese Communist Party isn't about to fall to a peasant rebellion, but if this story is any indication, Chairman Xi is going to have to dial back some of his concerns about "face" and come to the table to make a trade deal with the United States.

I'll make a prediction: In this trade-war game of chicken, China will be the first to flinch.

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