China has warned the United States that it is ready to fight “any type” of war, in a searing message responding to President Donald Trump’s mounting trade tariffs. The trade war between the two economic superpowers escalated this week when Trump imposed an additional 10% tariff on China, after which the country retaliated with its own 15% tariff on American agricultural goods.
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It forms part of Trump’s broader tariff policy that also came to include 25% tariffs on goods imported from Canada and Mexico, but it was China that had the sternest message for the president.
If the U.S. truly wants to solve the #fentanyl issue, then the right thing to do is to consult with China by treating each other as equals.
— Chinese Embassy in US (@ChineseEmbinUS) March 5, 2025
If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end. https://t.co/crPhO02fFE
“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 official for China’s embassy wrote on X. The message reiterates an earlier statement made by the Chinese foreign ministry, which was issued shortly after Trump’s levies took effect. It declared that China will fight the U.S. “to the bitter end” if it “persists in waging a tariff war, a trade war, or any other kind of war.”
Amplifying concerns, the message came as China pledged to boost its defence spending by 7.2%. It is perhaps the strongest rhetoric China has used since Trump became president, and it extended to his justification of the tariffs based on supposed Chinese production of fentanyl. “The fentanyl issue is a flimsy excuse to raise U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said (per BBC).
The US is spreading all kinds of false information on the fentanyl issue, smearing and scapegoating China, and hiking tariffs on Chinese imports over fentanyl. Such moves are unjustified and will do no one good.
— Lin Jian 林剑 (@SpoxCHN_LinJian) March 5, 2025
China’s position is clear-cut. We stand ready for practical…
“Intimidation does not scare us. Bullying does not work on us. Pressuring, coercion or threats are not the right way of dealing with China,” they added. China isn’t the only tariff-impacted country to respond to Trump’s economic manoeuvres. Canadian Prime Minister “make it easier [for him] to annex” Canada, and described the policy as a “dumb thing to do.”
For her part, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she’ll reveal the details of her own retaliatory tariffs after speaking with Trump later this week. The president’s trade war adds to his broader aggression on the international stage, following a heated exchange with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week. That meeting — which saw Trump demand gratitude from Zelenskyy for the U.S. efforts in the Ukraine-Russia war — led to an outpouring of for Zelenskyy from other world leaders, with , Spain, and the Netherlands among those to declare they stand with Ukraine.
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— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) March 4, 2025
really issuing Tariffs, saying it's not really about Fentanyl but about annexing them:
“We have to fall back on the one thing he has said repeatedly —That what he wants is to see a TOTAL COLLAPSE of the… pic.twitter.com/FG27oZJNTO
Elsewhere, Trump’s aggressive diplomacy has included his plans to annex Greenland, which he seizing the Panama Canal. According to the BBC, Beijing officials had hoped to avoid being drawn into Trump’s whirlwind approach to foreign policy, especially since Trump invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to his inauguration. The two leaders were also reportedly scheduled to have a phone call last month, but that never came to fruition.
Published: Mar 6, 2025 04:53 am