China will take necessary countermeasures to resolutely safeguard its rights and interests, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday after the United States announced a list of tariffs on 200 billion U.S. dollars of Chinese goods Tuesday.
"The behavior of the U.S. is typical 'trade bullying," spokesperson Hua Chunying said at a daily press briefing.
"This is a war between unilateralism and multilateralism, between protectionism and free trade, and between power and rules," Hua said. "China will work with the international community to jointly safeguard the multilateral trading system and rules."
In fact, the trade war launched by the U.S. has already caused concerns by the international community. International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief Christine Lagarde, World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Roberto Azevedo, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, and the governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney all expressed their concerns or warned of the consequences of the U.S. move.
Hua said, countries around the world are interdependent, sharing weal and woe, since their economies are integrated into the global industrial and value chain to varying degrees.
Holding on to the outdated zero-sum mentality and willfully launching the trade war not only undermines interests of the two parties directly involved, but also others in the global industrial chain, and there will be no winner, Hua said.
Forty percent of Chinese export goods and two thirds of its export high-tech products are made by foreign enterprises in China, according to Hua.
"The U.S. is not only opening fire to the whole world, but also firing at itself," Hua said. "Authoritative sources of the world economic circles have said that the irrational behavior of the U.S. is dangerous, hurts itself and others, and is discredited."
She called on the international community to resolutely reject unilateralism, oppose protectionism, and safeguard the multilateral trading system and free trade rules.
