China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, on Friday vowed that Beijing would firmly retaliate against the United States if it escalated the trade war with more tariffs, striking a tough note despite the country’s economic challenges.
Mr. Wang’s comments came a day after President Trump suspended tariffs for goods coming from Mexico and Canada but did not do the same for items coming from China.
“If you choose to cooperate, you will achieve mutual benefit and win-win results; if you blindly exert pressure, China will definitely, resolutely counter,” the Chinese foreign minister said at a news briefing on the sidelines of China’s annual legislative session in Beijing.
Mr. Wang said the United States should “look within” for solutions to its fentanyl crisis and not blame countries like China for the problem, let alone impose tariffs on them. He also accused the Trump administration of being insincere toward China — a nod to Mr. Trump’s approach of publicly offering overtures toward China’s leader, Xi Jinping, while hitting the country with trade measures.
“No country can fantasize that it can suppress and contain China while at the same time develop good relations with China,” Mr. Wang said. “This kind of ‘two-faced’ approach is not only detrimental to the stability of bilateral relations, but also unable to build mutual trust.”
Mr. Wang’s news conference, an annual affair at the legislative sessions, appeared designed to bolster confidence in China’s prospects and attract more foreign investment that had been driven away in recent years by China’s weak growth, its heavy-handed response to the Covid pandemic and stricter national security laws.
His remarks came two days after Li Qiang, China’s premier and second-highest official after Mr. Xi, tried to project confidence in the country’s economy by setting an ambitious growth target for this year despite a domestic-property crisis and the escalating trade war with the United States.
Earlier this week, Chinese diplomats used even firmer rhetoric in responding to Mr. Trump’s tariffs. “If the U.S. has other intentions and insists on a tariff war, trade war or any other war, China will fight to the end,” Lin Jian, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said on Tuesday after the Trump administration slapped an additional 10 percent tariff on Chinese goods.
Beijing appears unsure of Mr. Trump’s intentions and is waiting to see if his tariffs are a bargaining tactic that eventually leads the Trump administration to request trade talks. Last month, Mr. Trump told reporters that a trade agreement with China was “possible.” That could include rehashing an unfulfilled $200 billion trade deal he struck with Mr. Xi during his first term that Mr. Trump blamed President Biden during his congressional address on Tuesday for failing to “enforce.” (Economists say that faulting Biden is a misdirection, blaming instead the Covid pandemic, tariffs and a global recession).
Mr. Xi has held firm against the United States, refusing to bow to pressure to engage with Mr. Trump like the leaders of Canada and Mexico did when they were first faced with the prospect of U.S. tariffs in January. China has instead responded to U.S. tariffs with an array of retaliatory trade measures, pledging never to back away from a confrontation.
Still, with its economy in the doldrums, China can’t afford to let the trade war spiral out of control. Even as it has pushed back, the government has urged the United States to engage with China through talks, as equals. On Thursday, China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, told reporters in Beijing that he had written to the U.S. commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, and the U.S. trade representative, Jamieson Greer, last month to invite them to meet.
Alexandra Stevenson and Berry Wang contributed reporting.
