BEIJING – China is not intimidated by US threats, said Commerce Minister Wang Wentao, vowing to “fight it to the finish”, days after Washington imposed a second tranche of tariffs on Chinese imports amid an escalating trade war.
The public warning by the country’s top trade official came as additional US levies on Chinese goods reached 20 per cent, and could rise further.
Beijing has retaliated with its own set of tariffs on a swathe of American agricultural products and launched an anti-dumping probe into some American fibre-optic imports.
“Coercion or blackmail doesn’t work on China, and doesn’t scare China,” Mr Wang said, referring to US President Donald Trump’s threats of layering tariffs on Chinese goods.
He was speaking to the press on March 6, on the sidelines of the Two Sessions, or annual meetings of Chinese parliamentarians and political advisers.
“If the US side goes further and further down the wrong path, China will take it on and fight it to the finish,” he said.
Mr Wang pointed to how US stock markets tumbled after additional levies on China, Mexico and Canada took effect on March 4, and argued that the US’ actions were detrimental to its own people and businesses.
“There are no winners in a trade war,” said Mr Wang, who separately acknowledged that “the development of China’s trade faces a grim situation”, but noted that it had diversified its trade partners.
He added that he had conveyed to his American counterparts the hope that their concerns could be resolved through dialogue, and that both sides could meet at an appropriate time, even as he said that the US actions were in “serious violation” of international rules.
Mr Wang was accompanied by four other heads of Chinese ministries and agencies, who were taking questions from a roomful of local and international reporters on their priorities for China’s economy in 2025.
One day after China unveiled an ambitious growth target of 5 per cent for 2025, they struck a confident note that the world’s second-largest economy could achieve it even as trade tensions intensified.
They emphasised that policymakers had the fiscal and monetary space to bolster the economy should the need arise.
At the press conference, a major theme was stronger support for innovation and technology, a key battleground in the intensifying US-China rivalry.
The officials announced more funding and fund-raising channels for the sector, which has had wind in its sails in 2025 with the global success of artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek.
Government spending on science and technology will exceed 1.2 trillion yuan (S$220 billion) in 2025, said Finance Minister Lan Fo’an, a hike of 8.3 per cent from 2024’s budget.
The state’s top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), also announced plans to set up a “national venture capital guidance fund” in support of tech companies.
The fund, which is expected to mobilise almost 1 trillion yuan in capital, is focused on “hard technology”, said Mr Zheng Shanjie, head of the NDRC.
State media outlet CCTV described it as an “aircraft carrier level” fund that would provide early-stage investments for start-ups in cutting-edge fields such as AI, quantum technology and hydrogen energy storage.
The fund would span up to 20 years, it added, supporting original innovation and breakthroughs in core technologies.
Apart from this, China will launch a science and technology board in its bond market, providing more financial support for innovation, said Mr Pan Gongsheng, governor of the People’s Bank of China.
The central bank will also expand the size of a relending facility that supports small and medium-sized firms in the field of science and technology.
This facility provides low-cost funds to banks to lend to these businesses.
The facility will grow to between 800 billion and 1 trillion yuan, Mr Pan said, up from 500 billion yuan. Interest rates would also be lowered and coverage expanded, he added.
“It’s clearly a forceful and sizeable push,” said Ms Shan Guo, a partner at consultancy Hutong Research in Shanghai, of the various financing measures announced for tech and innovation.
With these, both the state and the market are being mobilised to support the industry, she noted.
The timing of the roll-out, she said, was calculated to inject confidence into the market at a time when tech competition with the US is heightening.
“Beijing wants to prove it has the tools ready to continue its innovation path, which would be critical for China’s productivity and growth for the next decades,” she said.
At the press conference, Mr Zheng highlighted “breakthroughs” China had made as it pushed for developing new and emerging industries, including in AI, industrial and humanoid robots, and pharmaceuticals.
He said: “These prove that the more we are suppressed and blockaded, the more we will be forced to speed up the pace of independent innovation.”
Joyce ZK Lim is The Straits Times’ China correspondent, based in Shenzhen.
Yew Lun Tian is a senior foreign correspondent who covers China for The Straits Times.
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