BEIJING—China fired back after the Trump administration threatened to double proposed tariffs on $200 billion in Chinese goods, saying it won’t yield to White House pressure.
“China has been fully prepared and will have to retaliate to defend national dignity and the people’s interests,” the Commerce Ministry said in a statement Thursday.
Officials didn’t specify how it would retaliate. Because China imports far less from the U.S. than the U.S. imports from China, it can’t keep up tit-for-tat tariffs. But it can delay licenses and hold up mergers and acquisition approvals for American businesses and increase inspections of U.S. products at ports.
The Commerce Ministry said the purpose of the U.S. tariffs is to restrict China’s “peaceful development”—not, as the U.S. says, to retaliate for China’s unfair trade practices with the goal of narrowing the wide trade gap between the two countries.
The ministry also took note of what it said were conflicting White House messages: threats of higher tariffs but also signals it wants to resume settlement talks.
That strategy, it said, “doesn’t work for China at all.”
Trump administration officials say the U.S.’s robust economy gives it the high ground in the trade battle against China, which is showing signs of an economic slowdown. China also depends on trade more than the U.S.
In its statement, however, the Chinese Commerce Ministry said China can achieve “high-quality” economic growth despite the toll exacted by tariffs: “China always holds on to the belief that bad things can be turned into good things.”
The issue of China’s response to U.S. threats of higher tariffs also came up during the daily news briefing by the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Commerce Minister Zhong Shan at a meeting called on ministry officials to stabilize foreign trade “by all means,” according to a separate statement posted on the ministry’s website later Thursday.
“First, I suggest the U.S. take the right attitude and not to try to blackmail China as it doesn’t work,” spokesman Geng Shuang said in response to a question. “Second, we suggest the U.S. return to rationality and not act impulsively, as it will eventually hurt itself.”
Mr. Geng said China is also open to resuming trade talks but only based on mutual respect and equality. “The U.S. unilaterally exerting pressure on China will get the opposite of what it wants,” he said.
Preliminary talks by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Chinese Vice Premier Liu He haven’t produced even a plan for additional trade negotiations.
—Liyan Qi and Grace Zhu