China’s Ministry of Commerce has objected to Washington’s latest tariff on the country’s goods but signalled it will hold off on retaliation for now, noting the 12.5 per cent duty keeps the United States within the ceiling that the Trump administration promised in earlier talks.Washington was manipulating the issue of forced labour, the ministry said in a statement on Monday, calling the Section 301 investigation and the subsequent tariffs “a textbook act of unilateralism and protectionism”.It added that the US had previously promised Beijing that tariffs on Chinese goods would not exceed 20 per cent while reserving “the right to take all necessary measures”.
SRCSouth China Morning Post
LANGEN
LEANCenter-Right
WORDS104
ENT10
MON · 2026-07-27 · 11:53 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0727-96379
NSR-2026-0727-96379News Report·EN·Diplomatic
China condemns US over new Section 301 tariffs – but holds off on retaliation
China's Ministry of Commerce has expressed objection to the United States' recent tariffs on Chinese goods. The ministry stated that the new 12.5 percent duty remains within the previously agreed-upon ceiling by the Trump administration, and therefore, China will not retaliate for now.
Xiaofei XuSouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-07-27 · 11:53 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min
South China Morning PostFIG 01
Reading time
1min
Word count
104words
Sources cited
1cited
Entities identified
10entities
Quality score
100%
§ 01
Briefing Summary
AI-generatedNEWSAR · AI
China's Ministry of Commerce has expressed objection to the United States' recent tariffs on Chinese goods. The ministry stated that the new 12.5 percent duty remains within the previously agreed-upon ceiling by the Trump administration, and therefore, China will not retaliate for now. Beijing accused Washington of manipulating the issue of forced labor and characterized the Section 301 investigation and tariffs as "unilateralism and protectionism." The ministry also noted that the US had previously committed to keeping tariffs below 20 percent.
Confidence 0.85Sources 1Claims 5Entities 10
§ 02
Article analysis
Model · rule-basedFraming
Diplomatic
Economic Impact
Tone
Measured
AI-assessed
CalmNeutralAlarmist
Factuality
0.70 / 1.00
Factual
LowHigh
Sources cited
1
Limited
FewMany
§ 03
Key claims
5 extracted01
The US is manipulating the issue of forced labour.
quoteChina's Ministry of Commerce
Confidence
1.00
02
The US had previously promised Beijing that tariffs on Chinese goods would not exceed 20 per cent.
quoteChina's Ministry of Commerce
Confidence
1.00
03
The 12.5 per cent duty keeps the United States within the ceiling that the Trump administration promised in earlier talks.
quoteChina's Ministry of Commerce
Confidence
1.00
04
China will hold off on retaliation for now.
quoteChina's Ministry of Commerce
Confidence
1.00
05
China's Ministry of Commerce objected to Washington's latest tariff on the country's goods.
quoteChina's Ministry of Commerce
Confidence
1.00
§ 04
Full report
1 min read · 104 words§ 05
Entities
10 identifiedKey playerOppositionContextPositiveNeutralNegative
Organizations2
§ 06
Keywords & salience
9 termstariffs
1.00
retaliation
0.90
section 301
0.80
protectionism
0.70
unilateralism
0.70
forced labour
0.60
us
0.50
china
0.50
trump administration
0.40
§ 07
Topic connections
Interactive graph Network visualization showing 51 related topics
View Full Graph Person Organization Location Event|Click node to navigate|Edge numbers = shared articles