China is vowing to not back down to President Trump, with the Chinese embassy in the U.S. tweeting that it is ready to fight a trade war or “any other type of war.”
“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,” the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. posted to X, as Trump was wrapping up his address to a joint session of Congress late Tuesday evening.
Trump recently doubled tariffs on all Chinese imports from 10 percent to 20 percent, on top of increasing tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico to 25 percent. Trump said he’s leveraging tariffs to get China, Mexico and Canada to do more about the fentanyl crisis plaguing the United States.
He has blamed China for facilitating the production of chemicals used to make the deadly drug and policies in Mexico and Canada for allowing the drug to get into the United States.
The White House didn’t immediately respond to The Hill’s request for comment. In a fact sheet announcing the tariffs, the Trump administration said the “bold action” would hold the country accountable for “stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.”
“The influx of these drugs to our Nation threatens the fabric of our society,” Trump said in the order raising tariffs. “[China] plays a central role in this challenge, not merely by failing to stem the ultimate source of many illicit drugs distributed in the United States, but by actively sustaining and expanding the business of poisoning our citizens.”
Lin Jian, foreign ministry spokesman for the People’s Republic of China, dismissed the fentanyl issue as “a flimsy excuse” for tariffs during his regular press briefing Wednesday.
“China has made clear its opposition more than once and has taken legitimate and necessary countermeasures,” he said. “If the U.S. has other agenda in mind and if harming China’s interests is what the U.S. wants, we’re ready to fight till the end.”
“We urge the U.S. to stop being domineering and return to the right track of dialogue and cooperation at an early date,” he added.
