China reacted to US President Donald Trump's tariffs over the fentanyl issue on Wednesday, saying the US “is spreading all kinds of false information on the fentanyl issue, smearing and scapegoating China, and hiking tariffs on Chinese imports over fentanyl”.
“Such moves are unjustified and will do no one good,” said China's foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian on Wednesday.
“We firmly oppose the US pressuring, threatening, and blackmailing China under the pretext of the fentanyl issue," Jian added.
The Chinese embassy in the US, meanwhile, posted: “If the US truly wants to solve the fentanyl issue, then the right thing to do is to consult with China by treating each other as equals.”
China also challenged the US, saying, “If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end.”
Meanwhile, China has set an economic growth target for this year of "around 5%" and pledged to pump billions of dollars into its ailing economy, which is now facing a trade war with the US.
Its leaders unveiled the plan as thousands of delegates attend the ongoing National People's Congress.
President Xi Jinping had already been battling persistently low consumption, a property crisis and unemployment before Donald Trump's new 10% levy on Chinese imports came into effect on Tuesday.
At the opening of this week's meeting, known as Two Sessions, China vowed to make domestic demand the "main engine and anchor" of its economic growth.
Beijing was able to meet its 5% target for the last two years but growth was driven by strong exports, which resulted in a nearly trillion-dollar record trade surplus.
