China said Friday it was "forced to take a necessary counterattack" and responded in kind to the United States after Washington placed tariffs on 800 Chinese import products valued at $34 billion.
China said it applied retaliatory tariffs on 545 U.S. items, also worth $34 billion, "including agricultural products, vehicles and aquatic products," China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China is "completely justified" in its response to the U.S. tariffs, which he said "will disturb the global trade order, cause turbulence on the global market, and hamper world economic recovery," according to Chinese broadcaster CCTV.
Lu warned that consumers and small business would be adversely affected, noting that, "Enterprises and people in the U.S. are also increasingly realizing the great harm ahead."
China's Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng told reporters Thursday that about $20 billion of the U.S. goods China targeted are backed by foreign investors, including a significant portion from the U.S.