Donald Trump would "pay a heavy price" if he is elected president and insists on pulling out of the Paris climate change deal, a Chinese official threatened Friday as the world's first global warming agreement went into effect.

"If Trump were to insist on doing things his own way, then he would pay a heavy price both politically and diplomatically," said Zou Ji, who serves as second in command at China's National Center for Climate Change Strategy. "The U.S. would suffer the greatest harm and of course, the rest of the world would also be implicated," he continued, according to Reuters.

Trump has said one of his first priorities would be to exit the Paris Agreement, although that may be tougher to do now that the nonbinding deal to reduce carbon emissions has gone into effect among 196 countries. Many scientists blame the emissions from burning fossil fuels for driving manmade climate change.

The Chinese official's comments on Friday marks the second time in a week that China has publicly criticized Trump's climate agenda. The country has been virtually silent over the Republican nominee's policy priorities until this week.