In relations with China, the United States will not be helped by a truncheon that they are used to using with others. This was stated by the official representative of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China Gao Feng. In Beijing, they made it clear that the issues of bilateral trade should be resolved rationally, temperament in these cases is useless. The US government, at first, seemed to be beginning negotiations, whose prospects in China were assessed as positive, and then began to act "unpredictably". The US initiated a trade war, and "China is forced to take tough retaliatory measures," RIA Novosti quotes Gao Feng. In Beijing, they expressed regret that forced trade measures would harm American workers and farmers, but the protectionist economic policy of Washington.

Previously, the White House announced a 25-percent duty on Chinese goods worth 50 billion dollars a year. Washington warned that if Beijing gives a mirror response, the US side will introduce additional import duties. Despite the threats, the Chinese authorities released a list of 659 imported goods from the US, for which a 25 percent duty is imposed. On the eve of the European Commission decided to impose duties on a number of American goods in response to the US decision to fix duties on steel and aluminum, including European production.