China seeks support from Asian neighbors in trade fight with the United States

DOSSIER – In this Saturday, April 27, 2019, photo of the case, Chinese President Xi Jinping signs after his departure from a press conference in the suburbs of Beijing. Echoing Washington's latest tariff increase in a growing trade battle, Beijing has a wide range of solutions, ranging from limiting rare earth exports to disrupting Apple and other US companies in China. But they entail economic and political costs. And there is no guarantee that they will work. (AP Photo / Mark Schiefelbein, File)

BEIJING – China is seeking support from some of its Asian neighbors and Russia in intensifying its tariff fight with the United States.

Speaking Wednesday at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Kyrgyzstan, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the representatives of the group of eight countries had expressed their "broad support "to China's position.

Wang reiterated China's position that she would never accept unequal trade arrangements. He added that Beijing would apply its own measures to the "extreme pressures" of the United States.

Beijing has already reacted to tariff increases of $ 250 billion worth of Chinese imports imposed by Trump by applying penalties to $ 110 billion worth of US goods. Based on last year's trade, there remains about $ 45 billion worth of imports from the United States.

This includes semiconductors and other essential inputs needed by China's emerging technology industries.