Europe's AC Panic: Chinese Units Sell Out at €2,679

Why Germans Don't Have Air Conditioning

Europe can afford almost anything. Except, it turns out, an air conditioner.

Air conditioning penetration in German households has long hovered between just 3% and 6%, with the European average sitting below 20%. Historic buildings are under strict protection, meaning many property owners simply cannot drill through exterior walls to install traditional split-unit systems.

Installation costs alone often exceed €1,000 (roughly HK$8,700), frequently surpassing the price of the unit itself. In the past, European summers stayed mild enough that electric fans and thick, heat-absorbing walls sufficed. Air conditioning was never considered essential.

Europe's historic buildings are under strict protection, leaving many property owners unable to drill into exterior walls to install traditional split-unit air conditioners.

This year, however, proved entirely different. In late June, temperatures across multiple German regions surged past 37°C. Moeckern-Drewitz in the east recorded 41.5°C, shattering Germany's all-time meteorological heat record.

Southwestern France spiked to 44.3°C, while parts of Spain approached 45°C. The UK Met Office issued only its second-ever "red extreme heat warning" in history, forcing over 1,000 schools to close. Spanish official statistics revealed that between June 21 and 24 alone, just four days, the country recorded more than 212 excess deaths directly linked to the heat.

Europeans finally grasped a hard truth. This wasn't a matter of "enduring a few tough days." It was the new annual normal under climate crisis. Overnight, air conditioning shifted from a discretionary purchase to a matter of survival.

Temperatures across Europe approached or exceeded 45°C, with extreme heat turning air conditioning into an overnight necessity for survival.

In the past, European summers stayed mild enough that residents relied on outdoor shade and natural cooling to get through.

Chinese Air Conditioners Hit Europe's Exact Pain Point

At precisely this moment, Chinese appliance giant Midea had already developed a product tailored for the European market. It's called the "PortaSplit," a portable split-unit air conditioner. In hindsight, its design seems almost eerily suited to this very heatwave.

The unit requires no wall drilling. The outdoor component simply sits on a windowsill or balcony, venting hot air through a specially designed sealing kit. Users can install it themselves without hiring technicians or damaging any building structure.

Priced at roughly €700 to €800 (about HK$6,100 to 6,960), it undercuts the total cost of a traditional air conditioner plus installation by a wide margin. It also features heat pump technology, doubling as a heater in winter for a genuine year-round solution. One user who tested the unit for over 200 hours reported electricity costs under €30, underscoring its impressive energy efficiency.

Portable split-unit air conditioners require no wall drilling. Users can complete installation themselves using a specially designed sealing kit.

The three obstacles that have long plagued Europeans are the inability to drill walls, unaffordable installation, and heritage building restrictions. A single product design solved all three. This wasn't coincidence. It was the product of sharp market insight paired with genuine R&D capability.

Panic Buying Spirals Out of Control

The inevitable result was a supply shortage. By late June, stock at major German home-improvement chains had run dry across the board. On e-commerce platforms like Amazon, resale prices surged to nearly three times the official retail price. One unit sold for €2,679 (about HK$23,000), and buyers still snapped it up.

Austrian internet user Denis Yurchak, unable to sleep through a week of relentless heat, built his own AI-powered tracking program to monitor stock of this Chinese air conditioner across Europe around the clock. He eventually got an alert that one last unit remained in Linz, roughly 200 kilometres from his home. He drove through the night to secure it. His story quickly went viral online, striking a chord with countless users facing the same struggle.

The chaos also created business opportunities. Adrian Kubel, a programmer in Cologne, built a website called braucheklima.de (German for "I need air conditioning") within just a few days. The site provides a real-time stock map covering over a thousand stores across Germany. Users simply enter their postal code to check nearby availability.

For a one-time fee of about €2.69 (roughly HK$23), users can subscribe to three months of restock alerts, receiving an email notification the moment inventory appears. As of late June, the vast majority of stores on the site's map remained marked red for "sold out."

On a website offering a real-time stock map of over a thousand stores across Germany, most regions remain marked red, indicating sold-out status.

The numbers confirm the scale of this buying frenzy. Midea Group reported that since the heatwave began in late May, sales on German e-commerce platforms rose roughly 37% year-on-year. Shipment volumes to Spain and France surged 108% year-on-year.

Customs data show that air conditioner export values from China to France, the Netherlands, and Belgium all doubled year-on-year in the first five months of this year. Exports of portable units climbed more than 70% year-on-year. Chinese manufacturing is filling Europe's massive domestic supply gap with real, measurable volume.

China's air conditioner exports to multiple European countries have surged, with production lines running at full capacity to fill Europe's massive domestic supply gap.

Tariff Barriers Can't Cool Things Down

Some European politicians were still debating how to impose tariffs on Chinese appliances. Meanwhile their own citizens were already queuing outside supermarkets, paying inflated prices online, and driving hundreds of kilometers overnight, all just to secure a Chinese-made air conditioner.

The heatwave even ignited political debate in France. Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen publicly declared that if she came to power, her top priority would be ensuring hospitals, care homes, and schools are fully equipped with air conditioning. The political correctness once surrounding "environmental priorities" and "energy conservation" quietly collapsed in the face of days of 40-degree heat.

Many European netizens have taken to social media to recommend this Chinese air conditioner, praising it as offering "far better value than any European domestic brand." One user put it bluntly. "I hope the EU doesn't restrict imports for political reasons. Ordinary citizens will be the only ones who suffer."

The market never lies. As Europeans scrambled to buy Chinese-made products just to survive, they delivered the most direct rebuttal yet to "decoupling" rhetoric. It isn't China begging Europe to buy. It's Europe begging China to sell. The European politicians pushing "de-Sinicization" likely never expected this day to arrive quite so soon, or quite so hot.

Mao Paishou

** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **

A new meme word is taking over Western social feeds: Chinamaxxing. It captures a sudden, strange shift: young people are now mimicking Chinese daily life.

Some are drinking hot water, eating porridge, and wearing slippers. They're bingeing Chinese dramas, practicing qigong, and even declaring they've entered a 'China era.'

Take the White Rabbit candy wrapper. Born in 1959, it suddenly exploded on overseas social networks. In just three days, it racked up over 6 million views and 265,000 likes. Netizens called it 'this absolute masterstroke of graphic design.'

The White Rabbit wrapper, born in 1959, suddenly went viral. Netizens hailed it as a masterpiece of graphic design.

Then there's the 34-second AI-generated 'Chinese Heavenly Court' video. No dialogue. Just rolling seas of clouds, vast celestial stairways, flying eaves and jade towers floating among the clouds, and immortals with fluttering robes. It left countless people stunned.

No dialogue, just pure visual awe: the AI-generated 'Chinese Heavenly Court' video stunned overseas viewers.

And when 'Spider-Man 4' dropped a China-exclusive art poster, it reimagined a Western hero story with Eastern aesthetics. Foreign netizens were quick to praise: 'China never misses.'

Chinese aesthetics have truly gone viral overseas, all of a sudden.

But if you only scroll through mainland social platforms, a nagging question pops up: Are trends like Chinamaxxing, #becomingchinese, #iwannabeChinese, and #veryChinese actually sweeping the West? Or is this just another round of packaging a few overseas anecdotes as 'Chinese style conquering the world'?

This time, the answer is clear. This online phenomenon, at least, is not some fabrication by mainland media.

Where Did 'Chinamaxxing' Come From?

The term "Chinamaxxing" is born from the "maxxing" suffix, a staple of English internet slang.

You see it in words like "looksmaxxing". The idea is to push a trait or lifestyle to the extreme. Then someone applied that logic to different cultures and lifestyles. And "Chinamaxxing" was born.

Online sources trace the earliest usage to no later than 2025. By January 2026, it was spreading fast.

Know Your Meme now lists "Chinamaxxing" as an internet slang term and hashtag born on American TikTok. The site records the trend heating up from late 2025 into early 2026.

But here's the interesting part: it's not just Chinese media covering this.

CNA reported on February 25 that "Chinamaxxing" exploded in January. It noted that many Western Gen Z TikTok users were showcasing Chinese-style habits: drinking hot water, eating meals, foot soaking.

Drinking hot water? It's now a lifestyle experiment for Western youth.

That same month, US Business Insider jumped on the story. It listed activities like drinking hot water, eating congee, cooking apples, wearing house slippers, and practicing qigong.

By March, the UK's Guardian had weighed in. It described young people on TikTok and Instagram weaving Chinese cultural elements into their daily lives.

Then in April, the term landed in Know Your Meme's internet meme database.

Meme or Genuine Love for China?

Make no mistake: this wasn't Chinese Mainland cooking up an English buzzword and then announcing that 'Chinese style is sweeping the globe.'

The term genuinely took off in Western online spaces first. Only later did Chinese media sit up and take notice.

However: does Chinamaxxing mean Westerners actually like China now? Or is it just another internet meme rush?

The answer? Probably both.

The earliest viral content was strikingly lifestyle-oriented: drinking hot water, eating congee, cooking apples. Wearing slippers, soaking feet, practicing qigong. Watching Chinese dramas.

Cooking apples with goji berries and red dates: health-preserving diets are hitting daily menus.

All of it came wrapped in Chinese music, Spring Festival elements, or Chinese-style clothing.

Some TikTok videos even drop lines like 'You met me at a very Chinese time in my life.' Roughly translated, that means 'you met me when I was in the most Chinese period of my life.'

From Hot Water to Hot Pot: The Content Expands

Sure, these videos have a meme-like quality. But here’s what’s so interesting about it: Western Gen Z is truly mimicking the everyday lifestyle habits that Chinese people have long taken for granted.

Hot water. Slippers. Congee. Foot baths. The most ordinary things imaginable. Suddenly, they've become the 'Chinese lifestyle' on TikTok.

Business Insider picked up the trend in February this year. It noted that non-Chinese American creators were posting these videos, some racking up over a million views.

CNA also pointed out that the trend is spreading mainly among Western Gen Z TikTok users.

And the trend didn't stop at the punchline of 'drinking hot water'.

The content has ballooned. It now spans Chinese cuisine, Chinese film and TV, tai chi, qigong, Chinese cityscapes, Chinese tech products, and even travel to China.

Tai chi and qigong are pulling foreign tourists into urban parks for real-life practice.

When Spain's El País reported on 'Chinamaxxing' from Beijing on June 20, it drew a direct line to foreign young people's interest in Chinese tai chi, hot pot, traditional Chinese medicine, and technology.

The Offline Shift: When Memes Become Travel Plans

By August, Chinamaxxing had jumped from the screen to the street. On August 5, mainland media reported that overseas travel bloggers were sharing their China trips on platforms like Xiaohongshu, linking the trend with deep immersion into Chinese life.

The content had expanded far beyond hot water, congee, and qigong. Now it was riding high-speed trains, using mobile payments, strolling through city neighborhoods, tasting local cuisine, and visiting museums and art galleries. In short, a TikTok meme had morphed into a real-world travel experience for some foreign tourists 'entering Chinese life.'

A country's cultural elements start being imitated, consumed, and repackaged by another society. That's no longer just 'someone joking around online.'

The real story isn't how many Americans suddenly switch to hot water. It's the subtle shift in how young Westerners see China.

For a long time, the Western cultural current flowed one way. American movies, European fashion, Japanese anime, Korean pop music, and more swept the globe.

Young people elsewhere learned, imitated, and even idolized them.

China, meanwhile, more often appeared in Western news as the 'world's factory,' an 'export powerhouse,' or a 'geopolitical rival.'

The Bigger Picture: China's Cultural Position Shifts

But the tide is turning. Chinese brands, short videos, internet culture, films, and city life are becoming raw material for Western youth to watch, imitate, and consume.

On August 11, the Beijing Daily's new media account 'Chang’anjie Zhishi' weighed in. The biggest backdrop, it argued, is China's hard power surge. As China moves to the center of the world stage, the world feels its charm intuitively, from high-speed rail and EVs to robots, from complete infrastructure and refined social governance to inclusive livelihood security.

The Western perspective on the East is becoming more equal. It's no longer a condescending curiosity; it's a natural appreciation.

At its core, the chase for Chinese aesthetics and lifestyle is an instinctive pursuit of stability, health, and spiritual richness. "It is not about being deified overseas; it is inherently 'divine'".

Social media poured fuel on the fire. In January 2025, as the U.S. TikTok ban loomed, American users flooded into Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book). For the first time, many Americans saw the daily lives of ordinary Chinese netizens directly. Compared with the old way of 'seeing China' through Western media, this direct cross-platform contact sparks cultural collisions at the life level.

That's the soil in which 'Chinamaxxing' took root. Western media are now framing it as a soft power play in the Sino-American rivalry.

On July 19, The Guardian even ran the headline "the world isn’t Chinamaxxing, it’s America-avoidant". The paper argued that the growing interest in China is tied to America's declining image.

It cited a Pew Research Center survey showing that in most of the 36 countries surveyed, China and President Xi Jinping enjoyed higher favorability than the United States and its president.

Soft Power and the America-Avoidant Factor

The shift is clear: China is no longer just a subject for Western study and commentary. Some Western young people are now imitating it.

Chinamaxxing is, at its heart, a meme. Some people genuinely love it. Others are just playing with the trend. And plenty simply find Chinese elements novel and fun.

Some videos even deliberately exaggerate Chinese customs. But that doesn't erase the cultural significance.

Can a lifestyle be imitated? Can a cuisine become a trend? Can a country's cityscapes, brands, films, and daily habits inspire content from foreign youth? All of that is cultural influence.

But what's being imitated this time isn't some polished, high-end image China deliberately crafted. It's the most ordinary daily life.

Western young people are suddenly discovering a different world. Hot water, drunk this way. Slippers, worn indoors. Porridge as breakfast as. Hot pot as a ritual. And China's slick urban transit and tech gadgets? They become social media novelties.

Cultural output rooted in daily life seeps into ordinary lives far more effectively than any grand national image campaign.

The Real Takeaway

Forget proving that Americans finally love China. The real takeaway from Chinamaxxing is far more practical. China is gradually shifting from a distant object of Western observation into a cultural source that some Western young people can directly use, imitate, and consume.

Sure, some people drink a few cups of hot water, slip on some slippers, and declare they've entered their 'China era.' How many of them truly understand China? That's a different question entirely.

But here's what matters: Chinese culture is now being played with, learned from, filmed, and even adopted as a lifestyle by Western young people. That shift alone is worth watching.