Buyers always think ghosting happens because the factory is “busy,” “confused,” or “not good with English.”
No.
Factories ghost for one reason only:
They don’t want to tell you the real problem.
And in 2025, the reasons are bigger, deeper, and more dangerous than anything buyers dealt with in the past decade.
Let’s break down exactly why Chinese factories disappear — and how smart brands stop it before it happens.
Ghosting almost never starts with you.
It starts internally.
Right now, factories are under pressure from:
When a factory is losing money on your order, they won’t tell you.
They simply stop answering until they figure out how to push the loss onto you.
Ghosting is negotiation by silence.
This is the new trigger of 2025.
China is collecting revenue and profit data from sellers operating on global platforms.
The moment factories realized the government can see real income, they started:
When a factory suddenly goes quiet, it’s often because tax pressure hit them internally — and they are rethinking everything.
They won’t tell you because “we are under tax review” is not a sentence any factory will type into WhatsApp.
Silence feels safer.
Factories live in triage mode.
They prioritize based on:
If your order has:
…you fall to the bottom of the pile when production gets tight.
“Busy” is not the reason.
You just became optional.
Most ghosting starts the moment your production is moved to a cheap subcontractor you never approved.
Factories do this when:
The subcontractor knows nothing about you.
So when you ask for updates, photos, timelines — nothing comes back.
Ghosting = “We outsourced your order and can’t show you where.”
This is the #1 cause of quality disasters.
If a factory wants to increase your price but doesn’t know how you’ll react, they stop replying first.
Why?
To build pressure.
The silence makes you feel nervous.
The uncertainty makes you chase them.
The need becomes emotional instead of logical.
When they finally come back, they say:
“Raw materials increased…
We need to adjust the price a bit…
Or we cannot continue your order…”
They use ghosting to soften the ground.
It works because buyers hate losing production momentum.
Factories ghost when things go wrong:
For them, silence is easier than accountability.
Most problems are discovered too late because no one local was there to face the truth.
The most important point.
Factories ghost when there are:
If nothing binds them, nothing stops them.
Ghosting is the luxury of a supplier with no consequences.
When the factory knows:
They respond fast.
Accountability starts with presence.
Factories don’t fear English contracts.
They fear:
A Chinese-law contract turns ghosting into a liability.
If they know they only get money after providing:
…they don’t disappear.
When China Agent is on the ground:
Factories don’t ghost when someone is close enough to knock on the door.