By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-04-05 13:41:10 | Updated at 2025-04-06 05:32:16
15 hours ago
China has vowed to “continue to take resolute measures” to protect its interests against what it called “suppressive” tariffs imposed by the United States.
In a position paper released on Saturday evening, the Chinese foreign ministry said the US levies had “severely violated” the legitimate interests of other countries and “severely undermined the rules-based multilateral trade system”.
The paper, the first such statement from Beijing on the tariffs issue, also called on the world to “jointly oppose all forms of unilateralism and protectionism” and “safeguard the international system with the United Nations at its core”.
“China has and will continue to take resolute measures to maintain our sovereignty, security and development interests,” it said, while urging the US to “stop using tariffs as a weapon to suppress China’s economy and trade, and stop undermining the legitimate development rights of the Chinese people”.
China on Friday became the first country to respond in kind to US President Donald Trump’s latest tariffs blitz, which has affected nearly all American trading partners and prompted the steepest declines on Wall Street since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The market has spoken,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun posted on Facebook earlier on Saturday as he highlighted the US rout.
