Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Work Office, said in a speech that the Chinese finance hub has never levied taxes on imports and that the United States enjoyed a $272 billion trade surplus in the city over the past decade.
US President Donald Trump has increased the levies imposed on China to 145 percent, while Beijing has set a retaliatory 125 percent toll on American imports -- a move not followed by Hong Kong.
Imposing tariffs on the city is "hegemonic and shameless in the extreme", and shows that the United States does not want Hong Kong to thrive, Xia said.
The United States, he said, "is the greatest culprit in undermining Hong Kong's human rights, freedom, rule of law, prosperity and stability."
"It is not after our 'tariffs' -- it wants to take our 'lives'."
Xia said the US sanctions and tariffs would not shake the determination of Beijing and Hong Kong governments and that "victory must belong to the great Chinese people".
"Let those American 'hillbillies' wail before the 5,000-year-old civilisation of the Chinese nation!" he said, adding that anyone seeking to bring China into poverty was an "enemy".
The comments were part of a pre-recorded speech at a Hong Kong event to mark the 10th iteration of China's annual national security education day.
Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong after the city saw huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests in 2019.
Last year, the city passed another homegrown security law, which officials say is needed to restore order.
The United States imposed a fresh round of sanctions this month on Hong Kong's outgoing police chief, justice secretary and other officials over human rights concerns.
China's market regulator is looking into a deal by Hong Kong conglomerate CK Hutchison to offload 43 ports in 23 countries -- including its two on the Panama Canal -- to a US-led consortium.
The sale was seen as a political victory for Trump, who earlier vowed to "take back" the crucial waterway from alleged Chinese control.
Echoing earlier criticisms of the deal, Xia said on Tuesday "those who sell out the nation's interest during key moments... will not meet a good end".
Hong Kong leader John Lee also criticised the US tariffs as "absurd", saying at the event that the correct reciprocal levy would be "zero" as Hong Kong is a free port.
Chinese exports soared in March ahead of Trump's 'Liberation Day'
Beijing (AFP) April 14, 2025 -
Chinese exports soared more than 12 percent last month, according to data Monday, beating expectations as businesses rushed to get ahead of swingeing tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump on his so-called "Liberation Day".
Beijing and Washington have been locked in a fast-moving, high-stakes game of brinkmanship since Trump launched a global tariff assault that has particularly targeted Chinese imports.
Tit-for-tat exchanges have seen US levies imposed on China rise to 145 percent, and Beijing setting a retaliatory 125 percent toll on US imports.
Figures from the General Administration of Customs showed a 12.4 percent jump in overseas shipments, more than double the 4.6 percent predicted in a Bloomberg survey.
Imports during the same period fell 4.3 percent, an improvement on the first two months of the year in a sign that domestic consumption was rebounding.
"At present, China's exports are indeed facing a complex and severe external situation, but the sky will not fall down," Lyu Daliang, a spokesman for the General Administration of Customs, told a news conference after the data was released.
Beijing also said Monday that the United States remained the largest single overseas destination for Chinese goods from January to March, amounting to $115.6 billion.
Last month, which saw a second round of US tariffs imposed on Chinese goods, the country's exports to the United States increased by about nine percent year-on-year, Beijing said.
China's top leaders have set an ambitious annual growth target of around five percent, vowing to make domestic demand its main economic driver.
But its fragile recovery faces fresh headwinds from Trump's trade war.
The US side appeared to dial down the pressure on Friday, listing tariff exemptions for smartphones, laptops, semiconductors and other electronic products of which China is a major source.
- Frontloading -
Analysts attributed the March surge to a rush to export ahead of Trump's April 2 "Liberation Day" tariffs on all trade partners that sent global markets tumbling.
"The strong export data reflect frontloading of trade before the US tariffs were announced," Zhiwei Zhang, President and Chief Economist at Pinpoint Asset Management said in a note.
"China's exports will likely weaken in coming months as the US tariffs skyrocket," he added.
"The uncertainty of trade policies is extremely high," Zhang said.
Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China economics at Capital Economics, said in a note that "in anticipation of even higher duties, demand from US importers continued to hold up fairly well" in March.
"But shipments are set to drop back over the coming months and quarters," he added.
"It could be years before Chinese exports regain current levels."
And the world's second-largest economy continues to struggle with sluggish consumption and a prolonged debt crisis in its property sector.
Beijing last year announced a string of aggressive measures to reignite growth, including cutting interest rates, cancelling restrictions on homebuying, hiking the debt ceiling for local governments and bolstering support for financial markets.
But after a blistering market rally last year fuelled by hopes for a long-awaited "bazooka stimulus", optimism waned as authorities refrained from providing a specific figure for the bailout or fleshing out any of the pledges.
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