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China has warned the US it is ready to fight “any type” of war as it retaliates against Donald Trump’s mounting trade tariffs – while raising spending on its military.
The trade war between the two superpowers escalated on Tuesday as Mr Trump hiked his levies on Chinese goods to a total of 20 per cent, and China retaliated by imposing 15 per cent tariffs on American agricultural goods.
The Chinese embassy in Washington, in a post on X, said: “If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end.”
The spokesperson was reiterating an earlier statement by the Chinese foreign ministry, issued shortly after Mr Trump’s levies took effect.
The foreign ministry claimed China will fight the US “to the bitter end” if America “persists in waging a tariff war, a trade war, or any other kind of war”.
It comes as China said it will boost its defence spending by 7.2 per cent this year. The increase, announced in a government report due to be released in parliament, matches last year’s figure.
It remains well above China’s economic growth target for this year of roughly 5 per cent. Since Xi Jinping became president more than a decade ago, the defence budget has ballooned to 1.78 trillion yuan (£191.5bn) this year from 720bn yuan in 2013.
Mr Xi aims to complete a full military modernisation by 2035, with China’s military developing new missiles, ships, submarines and surveillance technologies.
Mr Trump has justified fresh tariffs on Chinese goods by blaming Beijing for the fentanyl opioid crisis in the US. He claimed that a “large percentage” of these deadly substances were made in China.
China has accused the White House of “blackmail” over its tariff hike, claiming it actually has some of the world’s toughest anti-drug policies.
Beijing’s foreign ministry lashed out, saying: “Intimidation does not scare us. Bullying does not work on us. Pressuring, coercion or threats are not the right way of dealing with China.
“Anyone using maximum pressure on China is picking the wrong guy and miscalculating.”
In his address to the joint session of the US Congress, Mr Trump claimed other countries have used tariffs against the US for decades. “Now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada … and countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them. It’s very unfair,” the president said.
“China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them,” he claimed.
Beijing’s commerce ministry on Tuesday claimed Washington’s “unilateral tax measures seriously violate WTO [World Trade Organisation] rules and undermine the foundation of China-US economic and trade cooperation”. China last month filed a complaint against the US with the WTO for violating trade rules.
Trade relations between the US and China suffered during Mr Trump’s first presidency after he announced tariffs on Beijing over a massive trade surplus in 2018. The resulting two-year trade war hit the world economy, with the global supply chain suffering due to tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of goods.
Trade and diplomatic relations edged back to normality during Joe Biden’s administration but have soured once more with Mr Trump’s tariff announcements.
The US State Department has said that America is working “to deter China’s aggression, combat China’s unfair trade policies, counter China’s malicious cyber activity [and] end China’s global trafficking of fentanyl precursors”.
