BEIJING - The Chinese government insists it will fight it out with new trade measures if the United States (US) insists on its protection policy, applying tariffs on goods originating from the panda country.
The stern statement came hours after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose an additional $ 100 billion tariff on Chinese goods. The threat was issued by Trump to avenge China's counterattack against previous US trading actions.
The Trump move is seen as a big bet with potentially damaging consequences for the world's two largest economies.
It unveiled a list of 106 US goods - from soybeans and whiskey to frozen beef and aircraft - targeted for tariffs, in retaliation after the Trump Administration proposed duty for 1,300 industries, technology, transportation and Chinese medical products.
Washington has called for the imposition of an extra $ 50 billion in taxes after a previous investigation showed that Chinese government policies were designed to transfer US intellectual property to Chinese companies, enabling them to seize leadership in the high-tech industries that are key to the future.
In response to Trump's latest comments, China's trade ministry reiterated that Beijing is not afraid of a trade war, although it does not expect it to happen. China also accused the US of provoking the conflict.
"If the Americans ignore the objections of China and the international community and persist in unilateralism and trade protectionism, the Chinese side will follow through to the end, with any consequence," a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce told Reuters on the ministry's official website.
While Beijing claims that Washington is an aggressor and spurred global protectionism, for years Chinese trading partners have complained that the country has violated the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and imposed a domestic unfair policy that keeps foreign companies from entering a number sector.
China has also repeatedly pledged to open important sectors in the country, such as financial services, to foreign investors.
President Xi Jinping next week is expected to unveil new steps on reform and opening his country at the Boao Forum that is equivalent to Davos, in the southern province of Hainan Island.