
China said on Saturday "the market has spoken" in rejecting US President Donald Trump's tariffs, and called on Washington for "equal-footed consultation" after global markets plunged in reaction to the trade levies that drew Chinese retaliation.
State-run Xinhua news agency also published the Chinese government's stance, saying the US should "stop using tariffs as a weapon to suppress China's economy and trade".
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan told public broadcaster RTHK, however, Hong Kong would not impose separate countermeasures, citing the need for the city to remain "free and open".
"The market has spoken," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in a post on Facebook on Saturday.
He also posted a picture capturing Friday's falls on US markets.
Trump introduced additional 34 percent tariffs on Chinese goods as part of steep levies imposed on most US trade partners, bringing the total duties on China this year to 54 percent.
Trump also closed a trade loophole that had allowed low-value packages from China to enter the US duty-free.
This prompted retaliation from China on Friday, including extra levies of 34 percent on all US goods and export curbs on some rare earths, escalating the trade war between the world's two largest economies.
Global stock markets plummeted following China's retaliation and Trump's comments on Friday that he would not change course, extending sharp losses that followed Trump's initial tariff announcement earlier in the week and marking the biggest losses since the pandemic. (Reuters)