Chi­na sig­naled Sun­day that it would not back down in the face of a 100% tar­iff threat from Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump, urg­ing the U.S. to re­solve dif­fer­ences through ne­go­ti­a­tions in­stead of threats. U.S. Vice Pres­i­dent JD Vance de­fend­ed Trump’s po­si­tion and seemed to warn Chi­na not to be ag­gres­sive in its re­sponse.

“Chi­na’s stance is con­sis­tent,” the Com­merce Min­istry said in a state­ment post­ed on­line. “We do not want a tar­iff war but we are not afraid of one.”

It was Chi­na’s first of­fi­cial com­ment on Trump’s threat to jack up the tax on im­ports from Chi­na by Nov. 1 in re­sponse to new Chi­nese re­stric­tions on the ex­port of rare earths, which are vi­tal to a wide range of con­sumer and mil­i­tary prod­ucts.