BEIJING’S Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng accused the US today of using bullying tactics and blackmail in threatening to impose tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of Chinese imports.

Mr Gao said the US was damaging the global trading order, warning that its methods would harm its own business interests as well as those of trading partners.

“We oppose the act of extreme pressure and blackmail by swinging the big stick of trade protectionism,” he declared.

“The US is abusing the tariff methods and starting trade wars all around the world.”

President Donald Trump has ordered 25 per cent tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, claiming Beijing has enforced the transfer of US technology, amounting to intellectual property theft.

He has also threatened to impose tariffs on around 90 per cent of the goods that China shipped to the US last year.

The 25 per cent tariffs, applicable from July 6, were quickly matched by Beijing on US exports to China.

Mr Gao said accusations of forced technology transfer and intellectual property theft “seriously distorted history and reality.”

Washington’s global trade deficit started to balloon several years before China’s surplus surged, indicating that the reason behind the imbalance lies somewhere other than China.

Some economists say the bulk of China’s trade surplus with the US stems from its role as the final assembly point for components imported from South Korea, Taiwan and other economies.

Overseas governments complain that their firms operating in China have to share technology to assist Beijing’s bid to create world-leading companies under its “Made in China 2025” programme.

Sharing technology has, however, been an essential demand since the Chinese Communist Party authorised joint enterprises with transnational corporations as part of its economic opening-up.

China’s imports of food, clothes, cosmetics and other consumer goods from US are growing, but, with Chinese incomes barely a tenth of US levels, spending power is limited.

Mr Gao confirmed that China will continue to trade with Iran despite sanctions threatened by Washington.

He said Beijing opposes unilateral sanctions in general, adding that trade with Iran does not undermine China’s international obligations.