T-shirts depicting Donald Trump with clenched fist after shooting withdrawn from China

Chinese e-commerce platforms have pulled T-shirts featuring an image of Donald Trump raising his fist in the air moments after he was shot.

The shirts went on sale hours after the shooting and could be purchased through popular e-commerce sites such as Taobao and JD.com.

It is unclear why the listings were removed, but the internet is tightly controlled in China and content deemed “sensitive” is routinely removed.

The attempted bombing at a rally in Pennsylvania last Saturday sparked widespread discussion online, with related hashtags gaining popularity on the X-like platform Weibo.

Enterprising Chinese retailers immediately sprang into action, with the first batch of T-shirts printed and put up for sale online less than three hours after the shooting.

An image from the cache of Taobao, one of China’s largest e-commerce sites, shows a T-shirt priced at 39 yuan ($9; £7).

A 25-year-old Taobao seller told the South China Morning Post that she received more than 2,000 orders for the T-shirts just three hours after she put them up for sale, with most coming from China and the US.

Trump has enjoyed Internet users’ interest in China for years – for both positive and negative reasons.

The trade war he waged with Beijing during his presidency has enraged the government and many Chinese, but it has also found some support – including a group of Chinese immigrants in the US who have translated all of Trump’s tweets via X account @Trump_ChineseThe account, created in September 2018, has amassed over 344,000 followers over the years.

There is also a popular internet joke that relies on the Chinese translation of Trump, Chuan. He is often referred to as Chuan Jianguo, meaning “Trump – Our Nation Builder,” as a way to mock what they see as his role in helping China become a superpower.

Chinese entrepreneurs have been profiting from interest in him for years.

Although T-shirts featuring Trump were pulled from China following the shooting, online retailers in China continue to offer a wide range of products featuring Trump, including socks and mugs with his caricature and red caps with his campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”

Retailers around the world also benefited from the attempted attack.

Similar T-shirts were available for purchase on popular Southeast Asian e-commerce platforms such as Lazada and Shopee.

Lazada is owned by Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group, which also owns Taobao.

Online photos also show similar shirts for sale in the U.S. Some had captions added — one read “Leaders Never Die” and another “Bullet Proof.”