Memorandum on the China–Vietnam Outdoor Furniture Industry

This memorandum is a follow-up to one chapter of my doctoral dissertation, “The Role of Social Networks and Institutional Support in Cluster Formation.” In the course of that research, I visited the three main outdoor furniture production clusters in China: Zhejiang Province (Deqing, Ningbo, and Shangyu), the Pearl River Delta, and Pingyu County in Henan Province, and interviewed leading firms and SMEs in each location.

In July 2025, while back home on annual leave, I conducted another round of field visits to outdoor furniture manufacturers. This time, I visited eight firms in total: six in Pingyu County, Henan Province, and two in southern Vietnam, in Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces near Ho Chi Minh City.

This round of fieldwork took place against a particular backdrop. In early 2025, after returning to office, the Trump administration imposed “reciprocal tariffs” on a wide range of countries, including both China and Vietnam. How the outdoor furniture industry responded to this shock is the central phenomenon this memorandum seeks to document.

The original text was written in Chinese. This English version was translated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by the author.

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