The Chinese ambassador to the United States on Thursday warned that China will not hesitate to retaliate if President Trump Donald John TrumpBubba Wallace to be driver of Michael Jordan, Denny Hamlin NASCAR team Graham: GOP will confirm Trump's Supreme Court nominee before the election Southwest Airlines, unions call for six-month extension of government aid MORE follows through with his proposed tariffs against Beijing.

"We don’t want a trade war with the United States, or with anybody else. But we are not afraid of it. If somebody tries to impose a trade war on us, we will fight,” Ambassador Cui Tiankai said in a video posted to the Chinese Embassy’s Facebook page.

His comments came shortly after Trump announced he plans to slap tens of billions of dollars in tariffs and penalties on imports from China to try to curb its efforts to steal intellectual property from U.S. companies.

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Trump said the tariffs "could be about $60 billion," hours after his own advisers said the number would be closer to $50 billion.

Earlier this month, Trump also announced steep tariffs — not specific to China — on steel and aluminum imports, despite warnings from U.S. and international lawmakers that doing so could spark a trade war.

Trump brushed off those warnings, arguing that trade wars are "good, and easy to win."

Cui said Thursday that China will do what is necessary to defend its interests and “safeguard the open global trading system.” He suggested doing the latter would also be in the best interests of the U.S.

“Let me assure those people who intend to fight a trade war: We will certainly fight back. We will retaliate,” he said. “If people want to play tough, we will play tough with them and see who will last longer.”