BEIJING: China’s foreign minister made unusually outspoken comments on Wednesday, saying the US move to raise tariffs on Chinese goods was a sign of weakness, not strength, and showed that some people in the US “may have lost their minds”.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced steep tariff increases on Chinese imports, including electric vehicle (EV) batteries, computer chips and medical products; That has appealed to American voters who give his economic policies low marks, while risking an election-year standoff with Beijing.
China vowed immediate retaliation.
“This is the most typical form of bullying in the world today! This shows that some people in the United States have come to the point of losing their minds to maintain their unipolar hegemony,” Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a statement. It was broadcast by state broadcaster CCTV.
“The US crushing China does not prove that the US is strong, on the contrary, it reveals that the US has lost its self-confidence and is corrupted,” he said.
Wang said that this move by the United States will inspire its 1.4 billion citizens to work harder rather than hindering China’s development.
“At this critical moment of global economic recovery, the international community must warn the United States against creating new problems for the world,” he said.
Biden said China would likely raise tariffs in retaliation on unrelated products, but the move was unlikely to lead to international conflict.