‘Tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war’ — China says it’s ready to fight

China said it was prepared to fight “any type of war” with the U.S., as President Donald Trump ratchets up economic and political pressure on the country.

“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. said in a post Wednesday on X, signaling an increasingly aggressive stance toward the U.S.

The remarks came as Trump’s additional 10% tariffs on imports from China took effect Tuesday, taking the cumulative tariffs imposed in just about a month to 20%.

“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,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Wednesday.

In a swift retaliation against U.S. duties, Beijing announced Tuesday additional tariffs as high as 15% on certain U.S. goods, starting from March 10 and a series of new export restrictions for designated U.S. entities.

Answering a question on the Chinese Embassy’s remarks, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday that while the U.S. was not actively seeking conflict with China, the country is “prepared.”

“We live in a dangerous world with powerful, ascendant countries with very different ideology,” he added, “If we want to deter war with the Chinese or others, we have to be strong.”

Beijing’s tariff action to target U.S. agricultural exports reflects an attempt to trigger political pressure on Trump from farmers, a key Republican constituency, Gabriel Wildau, managing director of Teneo, said in a note.

Agricultural products are the largest U.S. exports to China, with soybeans — which Beijing hit with new duties of 10% — topping the list. During the last U.S.-China trade war, Chinese tariffs spurred domestic importers to shift purchases of soybeans to Brazil and Argentina.

With U.S. tariffs threatening to crimp China’s exports, a rare bright spot in an otherwise slowing economy, Beijing has signaled its willingness to use monetary and fiscal stimulus to mitigate their impact this year.

Trump announced the two rounds of China tariffs in response to the Asian country’s alleged role in the fentanyl trade. The addictive drug, precursors to which are mostly produced in China and Mexico, has led to tens of thousands of overdose deaths each year in the U.S.

China has called the U.S. fentanyl-related explanation for imposing tariffs a “flimsy excuse.”

After the initial round of new U.S. tariffs in February, China’s retaliatory measures included raising duties on certain U.S. energy imports and putting two U.S. companies on an unreliable entities list that could restrict their ability to do business in the Asian country.

China’s relationship with the U.S. is bound to see disagreements, but Beijing will not accept pressure or threats, Lou Qinjian, spokesperson for the third session of the 14th National People’s Congress, told reporters Tuesday morning.

China’s biggest political meeting of this year kicked off on Tuesday in Beijing, where the government set the key economic targets for 2025 and will continue to unveil their economic blueprint for the year. The event is scheduled to conclude on March 11.

While it remains a base-case scenario that Washington and Beijing could reach an agreement to roll back some tariffs after a series of negotiations, Wildau cautioned that risks for a “broad and durable decoupling of the two economies” were growing.

China said in its government work report on Wednesday that it would boost defense spending by 7.2% this year to “safeguard” its national security.

— CNBC’s Evelyn Cheng and Lim Hui Jie contributed to this report.