China vows to ‘fight to the end’ after fresh U.S. tariff threat

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has said the country will “fight to the end” after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose an additional tariff of 50 percent on Chinese goods.

“If the United States continues waging tariff war and trade war, China will fight to the end,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said at a news briefing on Tuesday.

Lin said the indiscriminate imposition of tariffs by the United States seriously violates the legitimate rights and interests of other countries, seriously violates the rules of the World Trade Organization, seriously damages the rule-based multilateral trading system and seriously impacts the stability of the global economic order.

“It is typical unilateralism, protectionism, and economic bullying and has been widely opposed by the international community,” the spokesperson said, noting that China strongly condemns and resolutely opposes it.

Pointing out that no winners emerge in trade wars and tariff wars and that protectionism leads nowhere, Lin said the Chinese people do not cause trouble, but they are not afraid of trouble either. “Pressuring, threatening and blackmailing are not the right ways to deal with China.”

The spokesperson added that China will take necessary measures and resolutely safeguard its legitimate rights.