(Bloomberg) -- China is “well armed to deliver counter-punches,” while the U.S. will bear the brunt of “its unilateralism and protectionism” in the ongoing trade tension between the world’s two biggest economies, according to state media.
“Triumph will be in China’s hands as multilateralism and free trade is the trend of the times and enjoys global majority support,” the state-run Xinhua News Agency wrote in an English-language commentary on Tuesday. China will take “necessary counter-strikes” if the U.S. continues to escalate tension, it said, adding that it “is not bluffing.”
Trump on Friday signed an order that could restrict Huawei Technologies Co. and fellow Chinese telecommunications company ZTE Corp (HK:0763). from selling their equipment in the U.S. The Trump administration, which says Chinese companies are obliged to aid Beijing in espionage, also put Huawei on a blacklist that could forbid it from doing business with American companies.
“There are many possible options given the inter-dependency of the two economies,” it wrote when talking about countermeasures, but didn’t give details, Xinhua wrote. China’s economy is resilient and has ample policy tools to weather further trade-war effects, but "the U.S.’s long economic expansion has peaked and will soon start to feel the pinch," the commentary said.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Miao Han in Beijing at mhan22@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeffrey Black at jblack25@bloomberg.net
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