As the damaging tit-for-tat tariff battle between US President Donald Trump and Beijing continues to escalate, Chinese social media users have take the trade war online.

Videos and memes mocking the US over its “liberation day” tariffs against China are both funny and sobering.

One AI-generated video depicts overweight Americans labouring in a garment factory and assembling mobile phones in an assembly plant – all accompanied by sombre Chinese music.

The video concludes with the MAGA slogan “Make America Great Again”.

Many on social media found the video “hilarious”, asking “When did China get a sense of humour?”.

Others defended Trump’s imposition 104 per cent tariffs on Chinese goods, which came into effect on Wednesday afternoon (Australian time).

“They can troll, but, they’ve just been destroyed by a stroke of Trump’s pen,” one Trump fan said.

Another declared “Screw China!”.

Trump last week revealed a swathe of tariffs on friends and foes alike on what he called “liberation day”.

China, a major exporter of goods and components to the US, was among the hardest hit with a 34 per cent tariff on all imports from the country.

After it retaliated by imposing a 34 per cent tariff of its own on goods from the US, Trump angrily vowed to add an additional 50 per cent tariff on China products.

While Australia was hit was the lightest available tariff rate of 10 per cent, Australian export and sharemarkets are bracing for the inevitable global trade turmoil.

Trump promised a “golden age of America” while revealing his liberation day tariffs.

“Jobs and factories will come roaring back into our country, and you see it happening already. We will supercharge our domestic industrial base,” he said.

The viral video shows Americans undertaking Chinese-based jobs. Photo: TikTok/Axiang67

So far, the US has seen chaos on Wall Street as share prices plunged, while numerous international companies pause exports and consumers around the world boycott US goods.

Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, has sparked his own private war with Beijing by claiming Washington was borrowing money from “Chinese peasants”.

Speaking to Fox News last Thursday, Vance said Trump’s tariffs were an antidote to a “globalist economy” that he said had not worked for ordinary Americans.

“We borrow money from Chinese peasants to buy the things those Chinese peasants manufacture,” he said.

China quickly condemned the comments as “ignorant”.

“It is surprising and sad to hear such ignorant and impolite words from this Vice-President,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.

Lin said there were “no winners” in tariff wars, adding that  “pressure, threats and blackmail are not the right way to deal with China”.