China told Washington on Wednesday to “stop threatening and blackmailing” after US President Donald Trump said it was up to Beijing to come to the negotiating table to discuss ending their trade war.
Trump has slapped new tariffs on friend and foe alike but has reserved his heaviest blows for China, with new levies of up to 145 percent on many Chinese imports even as Beijing has retaliated with duties on US goods of 125 percent.
“If the US really wants to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation, it should stop exerting extreme pressure, stop threatening and blackmailing, and talk to China on the basis of equality, respect and mutual benefit,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.
“China’s position has been very clear. There is no winner in a tariff war or a trade war,” Lin said, adding: “China does not want to fight, but it is not afraid to fight.”
Trump’s new levies mean that the tariffs on certain Chinese goods are as high as 245 percent, which the White House said in a factsheet on Tuesday were “as a result of its retaliatory actions”.
Beijing’s commerce ministry said in a statement later on Wednesday it had “noted that the cumulative tariffs on some individual Chinese exports to the US have reached 245 percent under various designations”, without detailing the scope of the products affected.
“The United States has instrumentalized and weaponized tariffs to a completely irrational level,” the ministry said, adding that China would “ignore the US’s utterly meaningless tariff numbers game”.
The Republican initially imposed 20 percent tariffs on imports from China over its alleged role in the fentanyl supply chain, on top of duties from previous administrations, then added 125 percent over trade practices that Washington deems unfair.
His administration has, however, given temporary reprieve for certain tech products such as smartphones and laptops.
The White House said on Tuesday it was up to Beijing to make the first move towards ending the dispute, which economists warn could cause a global recession.
“The ball is in China’s court. China needs to make a deal with us. We don’t have to make a deal with them,” said a statement from Trump read out by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. China said on Wednesday its economy grew a forecast-beating 5.4 percent in the first quarter as exporters rushed to get goods out of factory gates ahead of the US levies.
