China MOC spokesperson's remarks on U.S. tariff announcement

In response to the U.S. trade measures on China, a spokesperson of China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Friday that the two countries have conducted rounds of consultations on bilateral trade, trying to settle disputes for a win-win result.

"It is deeply regrettable that in disregard of the consensus between the two sides, the U.S. has demonstrated flip-flops and ignited a trade war. This move not only hurts bilateral interests, but also undermines world trade order. The Chinese side firmly opposes that," the spokesperson said.

Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Gao Feng [File photo: mofcom.gov.cn]

The spokesperson said that China does not want a trade war. However, confronted by such short-sighted act that hurts both the U.S. itself and others, China has no choice but to fight back forcefully to firmly safeguard the interests of the nation and its people and uphold economic globalization and the multilateral trading system.

"We will immediately take tariff measures of the same scale and intensity. All economic and trade outcomes of previous talks will now lose effect.

"Waging a trade war does not conform to global interests nowadays. We call on all countries to take collective actions to firmly curb such outdated and regressive move and steadfastly safeguard the common interests of the mankind. 

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang made similar remarks Friday.