Beijing — China warned Sunday it will impose “corresponding measures” if US President Donald Trump follows through on a threat to levy a new 100% tariff on Chinese imports, escalating tensions just weeks before a planned leaders’ meeting that now appears in doubt.
In its first official response, China’s Ministry of Commerce said “resorting to threats of high tariffs is not the right way to engage with China,” adding that Beijing “does not want a tariff war, but is not afraid of one.” The statement urged Washington to “promptly correct its wrong approach” and preserve recent progress in negotiations.
The latest flare-up follows Beijing’s rollout last week of sweeping export controls on rare earths — a suite of minerals indispensable to electronics, autos, semiconductors and some defense systems. The new rules expand the restricted list and curb transfers of production technologies and overseas end-uses, moves that could tighten global supply chains already on edge.
Markets slid on the prospect of a renewed tit-for-tat. Investors fear a reprise of the spring escalation, when effective tariff rates jumped to roughly 145% on some Chinese goods and 120% on US goods after successive rounds of penalties and countersanctions.
Trump tied his tariff threat to China’s rare-earth measures, calling them “extremely hostile” on social media. He also cast doubt on a previously expected meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in South Korea later this month, part of a broader Asia trip.
Beijing, for its part, framed its rare-earths decision as lawful and defensive, pointing to recent US steps it says poisoned the atmosphere: expanding the export-control list to more Chinese firms and their subsidiaries, adding special port fees for Chinese-flagged vessels, and introducing other restrictions within weeks of talks in Madrid in September. Chinese officials accused Washington of “double standards,” noting the US has long used extraterritorial export controls to keep advanced chips and chipmaking tools out of China.
Analysts say the rare-earths gambit mirrors, in form if not scale, the US semiconductor curbs: both seek leverage by targeting choke points. Any prolonged squeeze could ripple through industries from smartphones and EVs to wind turbines and fighter jets.
The immediate questions now: whether the White House formalizes the 100% tariff order; how far Beijing goes in retaliation; and if the two sides can salvage working-level talks to prevent a deeper rupture. With financial markets and global manufacturers watching, even a short-term misstep could carry outsized costs.
