Trump imposed more blanket tariffs on Chinese imports this week, following a similar move last month -- levies expected to hit hundreds of billions of dollars in total trade.
The mercurial magnate has overturned the international order since returning to office in January, from pushing Ukraine to seek a peace deal with Russia to floating a widely condemned plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza.
At a press conference on the sidelines of a key political meeting, China’s foreign minister Wang Yi framed Beijing as a bulwark of stability in an unstable world.
He warned the “law of the jungle” could take hold if nations were to pursue purely their own interests.
Wang touted Beijing’s cooperation with the United States in the fight against the fentanyl epidemic, in which Washington has accused China of being complicit in justifying its tariffs.
Washington should not “repay kindness with resentment, let alone impose tariffs without reason,” he said.
“There are around 190 countries in the world,” Wang said.
“Imagine if every country emphasised their own priority and believed in strength and status, the world would fall back into the law of the jungle.”
He said the policy currently implemented by Washington was “not how a responsible major country behaves.”
The Chinese top diplomat was speaking on the sidelines of the “Two Sessions” political meetings in Beijing, so far clouded by a new administration in the United States that is overturning the international order.
He told the attending press that good China-US economic and trade ties benefitted all parties.
“If you choose to cooperate, you can achieve mutually beneficial and win-win results,” he added.
“If you use only pressure, China will firmly counter.”
“China and the United States will both exist on this planet for a long time, so they must coexist peacefully,” Wang stressed.
‘No winners’ in war
The veteran diplomat, however, appeared to side with Trump’s push for peace talks to end the conflict in Ukraine.
He also called for negotiations between all parties -- warning “conflict has no winners, and peace has no losers.”
Beijing, he stressed, “welcomes and supports all efforts dedicated to peace.”
And he urged all parties to seek a “comprehensive and lasting ceasefire in Gaza and increase humanitarian assistance.”
Beijing has vowed to fight a trade war with the United States “to the end” as tariffs from Washington buffeted the global economy and threatened to hit Beijing’s lagging growth.
The country’s leaders set an ambitious annual growth target of around 5% this week, vowing to make domestic demand its main economic driver as the escalating trade confrontation with the United States hit exports.
They also raised the country’s military budget by 7.2 % as Beijing’s armed forces undergo rapid modernisation and eye deepening strategic competition with the United States.
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