Trump to impose 104% tariffs on Chinese imports starting Wednesday

The Trump administration will apply new tariffs of 104% on Chinese imports starting Wednesday, after the communist regime hit back against the president's trade policy with levies of 34% on all US products.

"Countries like China, who have chosen to retaliate and try to double down on their mistreatment of American workers, are making a mistake. President Trump has a spine of steel, and he will not break," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said. "The Chinese want to make a deal, they just don’t know how to do it."

Hours earlier, Beijing had warned that it would not give ground even if Trump increased the levies. "China will fight till the end if the US side is bent on going down the wrong path," vowed from China's Ministry of Commerce in words picked up by the official Xinhua news agency.

"We have stressed more than once that pressuring or threatening China is not a right way to engage with us," Chinese embassy spokesman in the United States Liu Pengyu had told AFP. "China will firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests."

President Trump had described the Asian giant as "the biggest abuser" among the countries that, according to him, were taking advantage of the United States. He also assured that, if his demands were not met, he would close the negotiation channels.

China was, along with Mexico and Canada, one of the first targets of the Administration's tariff policy. The reason given by Trump and his officials for those first levies, prior to Liberation Day, was the trafficking of fentanyl.

The precursors of the synthetic opiate come from Chinese laboratories, according to several independent and official investigations. Companies of that origin are accused of participating in laundering the proceeds of drug trafficking across US borders.

From the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party they accused the communist regime of trying to extort Washington by putting fentanyl trafficking on the table:

"The CCP is fueling the fentanyl crisis that's killing tens of thousands of Americans every year—and now they’re demanding we drop tariffs in exchange for help... that's not diplomacy. It's extortion."

"Good for the committee to point out that China is deliberately sending fentanyl to the US," commented Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton. "And they have been for decades."