China fully prepared to defend its interests in trade friction: MOFCOM

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The Chinese government has both the will and the ability to defend its own legitimate interests amid the ongoing China-U.S. trade frictions, and has made full preparation for all sorts of possible changes, according to Gao Feng, spokesperson of China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), on Thursday.

China's stance has always been consistent and clear-cut, that is, firm opposition to unilateral additional tariffs. There is no winner in the trade war, which is not in line with the interests of both parties as well as the world, noted Gao.

According to Reuters, tariffs on 200 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese goods would rise to 25 percent from 10 percent at 12:01 a.m. (0401 GMT) on Friday, exactly in the middle of the trade talks in Washington.

U.S. President Trump also threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on an additional 325 billion U.S. dollars' worth of Chinese goods "shortly," saying the trade deal with China is moving "too slowly" as Beijing "tries to renegotiate."

Gao also refuted the doubts and negative labels against China, which claimed that China has broken its promises or blamed China of "breaking the deal." Gao said that negotiation is a process for exchanges of views and settlement of problems before reaching a consensus, hence it's normal that the two sides have different views.

"We hope to iron out the differences through trade talks instead of unilateral steps, and reach a mutually beneficial and win-win agreement based on mutual respect and equality."

"Chinese Vice Premier Liu He's visit to the U.S. for the 11th round of high-level trade talks from May 9 to 10 manifests China's responsibility and sincerity in pushing forward the consultations," Gao stated. "We hope that the U.S. will work with us in a joint effort towards this end, take care of each other's concerns, and iron out the problems facing both sides through cooperation and consultation."

The spokesman stressed that escalating the trade frictions goes against the interests of the two peoples and even the whole world. China expresses profound regret for such a move and will resort to necessary countermeasures if the U.S. takes the tariff measures.

(CGTN's Wang Hui also contributed to the story.)