No talks held recently over trade friction between China and the US

There have been no talks over economic and trade issues between Chinese and US economic officials recently, said Gao Feng, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, on Friday.

Gao’s remarks came after US President Donald Trump announced that the US is contemplating slapping extra tariffs on some 100 billion US dollars worth of Chinese items, ratcheting up trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

China is fully prepared and will not hesitate to strike back fiercely if the United States unveils the list of additional tariffs on 100 billion US dollars of Chinese products, said Gao.

Calling the move "unreasonable" and "extremely wrong," Gao said the US side has misjudged the situation and will only "shoot itself in its foot."

China is ready for further escalation by the US side and has prepared detailed countermeasures, he said.

"It is a battle between unilateralism and multilateralism, and between protectionism and free trade as well," Gao said.

If multilateralism and free trade are threatened, the economic globalization process will be disrupted, and the global economic recovery will be severely imperilled.

"This is detrimental to the vital interests of China and even more detrimental to the common interests of the world," he said.

"Facing such a major issue, we must fight resolutely," Gao said.

"Our way of doing things has always been the following: we will never seek any confrontation, but if confrontations come our way, we will resolutely fight back. We are serious about this issue and we will act on what we say," Gao said.

Earlier this week, the US released a list of over 1,300 Chinese items valued at 50 billion US dollars set to be targeted by additional tariffs, despite Beijing’s opposition and condemnation.

Hours later, China announced countermeasure against the US tariff plan, publishing a list of US products – including soybeans, automobiles, aircraft and chemical products – subject to extra tariffs.

To further worsen the friction, the US president said Thursday that he had asked his trade representative to consider 100 billion US dollars of additional tariffs on Chinese products. And China responded with the announcement of the readiness to fight "at any cost" and take "comprehensive countermeasures" by its Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The scale and speed of the intended punishments have escalated the trade conflict to one rarely seen in the world history.

(CGTN)