*BEIJING: China will “absolutely not” fire the first shot in a trade warwith the United States and will not be the first to levy tariffs, itsfinance ministry said on Wednesday.*
A person with knowledge of the plan earlier told Reuters China’s threatenedtariffs on $34 billion of U.S. goods would take effect from the beginningof the day on Friday. Given the 12-hour time difference, that would haveput its implementation ahead of Washington’s. Other media carried similarreports.
But the ministry issued a brief clarification in response.
“The Chinese government’s position has been stated many times. Weabsolutely will not fire the first shot, and will not implement tariffmeasures ahead of the United States doing so,” it said, without elaborating.
Washington has said it would implement tariffs on $34 billion of Chineseimports on July 6, and Beijing has vowed to retaliate in kind on the sameday.
Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China was ready toact, though he did not confirm the start date for Chinese tariffs.
“China has already made preparations,” Lu told a daily news briefing.
“As long as the United States issues a so-called tariff list, China willtake necessary measures to firmly protect its legitimate interests,” headded, without elaborating.
China’s yuan rose sharply against the dollar on Wednesday, a day after thecentral bank assured markets it would keep the currency stable amid growingworries about trade friction, although stocks fell.
Chinese state media on Wednesday kept up a steady drum beat of criticism ofthe United States.
The official China Daily said the United States was intentionally trying toprevent China from developing to keep it from challenging the former’s rolein the global economic order.
“The U.S. has maintained hegemony in the military and financial fields formany decades. Now it is pursuing economic hegemony,” the English-languagenewspaper said in an editorial.
“It has frequently waged wars against other sovereign countries and madeuse of the dominant influence of the U.S. dollar in the internationalmarkets to fleece other countries. Now it is attempting to resort to anall-out trade and economic war to hold back China’s normal development.”
Widely-read tabloid the Global Times, published by the ruling CommunistParty’s People’s Daily, said the increasingly likely trade war would bringchaos to the world.
“Counterstrike is major economies’ first reaction to Washington’s tradewar,” it said in its editorial.
“It’s hard to predict where these moves will lead the world, but Washingtonwill unavoidably pay heavy prices for its attempts to change the wholeworld to its economic tributary.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to escalate the trade conflictwith tariffs on as much as $400 billion in Chinese goods if Beijingretaliates against the U.S. tariffs set to take effect on Friday.
Chinese currency and stock markets have been jittery ahead of Friday’stariff implementation.