Beijing is maintaining that it will not back down in the face of President Trump's trade war. The Trump administration's tariffs on $34 billion worth of Chinese goods will begin at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, and the Chinese have said their retaliatory measures will go into effect immediately after.
“U.S. measures are essentially attacking global supply and value chains. To put it simply, the U.S. is opening fire on the entire world, including itself ... China will not bow down in the face of threats and blackmail and will not falter from its determination to defend free trade and the multilateral system.”
— Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson Gao Feng
Go deeper: The winners and losers (mostly losers) in a U.S.–China trade war.