China warns 'no one will win a trade war' after Trump vows new tariffs on imports

China issued a stark warning on Tuesday, saying that “no one will win a trade war,” following US President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to impose hefty tariffs on imports, targeting China and other countries over issues like fentanyl smuggling and immigration.

“China believes that China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature,” Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for China’s embassy in the United States, said in an email to AFP.

Tariffs are a key part of Trump’s economic agenda, with the Republican vowing wide-ranging duties on allies and adversaries alike while he was on the campaign trail.

Washington has long accused Beijing of complicity in the deadly fentanyl trade that has ravaged communities across the country. The embassy in Washington’s Liu rebuffed those claims in his statement, detailing steps that Beijing was taking to help curb the trade.

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“All these prove that the idea of China knowingly allowing fentanyl precursors to flow into the United States runs completely counter to facts and reality,” he said.

The statement came after Trump in a pair of posts on his Truth Social site Monday evening, railed against an influx of illegal migrants, even though southern border crossings have been hovering at a four-year low.

Trump also turned his ire to China, saying he has “had many talks with China about the massive amounts of drugs, in particular Fentanyl, being sent into the United States – But to no avail.”

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“Until they stop, we will be charging China an additional 10% Tariff, above any additional Tariffs, on all of their many products coming into the United States of America,” he wrote.

“On January 20th, as one of my many first Executive Orders, I will sign all necessary documents to charge Mexico and Canada a 25% Tariff on ALL products coming into the United States, and its ridiculous Open Borders,” he wrote, complaining that “thousands of people are pouring through Mexico and Canada, bringing Crime and Drugs at levels never seen before,” even though violent crime is down from pandemic highs.

With inputs from agencies.