China says Trump has 'launched a trade war'

(Image credit: Pool/Getty Images)

President Trump's Friday announcement of 25 percent tariffs to be levied on $50 billion of Chinese imports has "launched a trade war," China's Commerce Ministry said in a response.

"China does not want a trade war," the statement continued, but Beijing "will immediately launch tariff measures that will match the scale and intensity of those launched by the United States" and "all economic and trade agreements reached by previous negotiations will be nullified at the same time," including China's recent pledge to buy "significantly" more U.S. goods and services.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.