China says on Friday that it will strike back quickly if the United States hurts its interests.
The threat came hours before US President Donald Trump was due to unveil revisions to a tariff list targeting 50 billion dollars worth of Chinese goods.
Washington and Beijing appeared increasingly to be headed toward a trade war after several rounds of negotiations failed to resolve US complaints over Chinese industrial policy, market access and a 375 billion dollars trade gap.
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“If the United States takes unilateral, protectionist measures, harming China’s interests, we will quickly react and take necessary steps to resolutely protect our fair, legitimate rights,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular daily news briefing.
Trump was due to give details later on Friday of a revised list of 800 product categories, down from 1,300, according to an administration official and an industry source familiar with the list.
Trump has made up his mind to impose “pretty significant” tariffs on Chinese goods, another administration official said on Thursday.
