China claims Trump’s trade actions make US ‘enemy to all’

China’s Ministry of Commerce said the U.S. is “fully responsible” for an escalating trade war between the two nations, adding that the actions of President Trump’s administration are making it an “enemy to all.” 

The formal statement released on Thursday comes just a couple days after Trump announced that $200 billion worth of Chinese exports would be hit by another round of tariffs. 

{mosads}China also accused the U.S. of “slander,” saying that its allegation that Beijing is “gaining extra advantage through unfair trade practice is a distortion of facts and hence is groundless.”

It noted that China has been willing to talk to the United States about trade irritants.

“From February to June this year alone, China engaged in four rounds of high-level economic talks with the U.S., and has announced the China-U.S. Joint Statement with important consensus reached on strengthening trade and economic cooperation and avoiding a trade war,” the ministry said. “But due to domestic politics, the U.S. has gone back on its words, brazenly abandoned the bilateral consensus, and insisted on fighting a trade war with China.” 

China also warned that when the U.S. “willfully exits from groups based on its own interests under the pretext of ‘American First,’ it becomes an enemy to all.”

The U.S. has already announced tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports.