This is CBS. Hi on the World. I'm John Batchel. I welcome my colleague Chris Regal. He is the CEO

of Scholar.com, a global technology firm. This is a scholar report. And for some months now,

Chris has been reporting to me, thanks to his contacts on the mainland of China, that factories, especially in the Pearl River Basin, that is where electronics originate for the Chinese miracle, especially there, factories have been alarmed to the point of panic and despair because of the cutback

and orders everywhere worldwide, but especially now accelerating because of the tariff talk.

This was happening before, but it's especially happening now.

And so my Financial Times arrives within these last hours with this headline.

Chinese factory slow production and send workers home as U.S. tariffs bite.

Subhead owners say American customers have canceled or suspended orders.

This has been happening for months.

So blaming the tariffs is useful rhetoric when you're

dealing with, say, selling yourself to the bricks as a rules-based economy, which is what China has

intention. Good for them. See anybody who believes it. But in any event, these factories have been slowing and slowing,

and most recently, Chris Regal tells me, they're screaming. Our order books are blank. There's nothing.

Chris, a very good evening to you. I'm not asking you to take a victory lap. I'm trying to interpret this.

They're acknowledging that they've been out of work for some time.

Why?

Why are they telling us now, having denied it?

Why are they confirming the FTs' reports,

though they would have been in the FT offices for weeks?

Good evening to you.

Good evening, John.

It's a great question.

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