The effect of the China tariffs would be larger and more concentrated than the steel and aluminum measures and would have a bigger impact on United States consumers, who are heavy purchasers of electronics, clothing and other Chinese imports. The steel and aluminum tariffs would affect imports of roughly $33 billion, excluding Canada and Mexico, which are expected to be exempt from the measures, said Joseph Parilla of the Brookings Institution. The China moves would affect at least $50 billion a year in imports, officials said.

Chinese companies have also been placing big bets on American companies. New Chinese acquisition deals in the United States once totaled tens of billions of dollars annually, according to Rhodium Group, which tracks Chinese investments abroad, though last year they fell sharply to $8.7 billion as China cracked down on money leaving its borders.

Chinese companies have purchased many nonstrategic assets like movie theaters and the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. But they also sought out deals in cutting-edge areas like semiconductors and start-ups related to autonomous driving as China looked to upgrade its technological capabilities. China sees the American stranglehold on fundamental technologies as a long-term economic and security threat to its rise as a superpower.

Unlike the metal tariffs, which caused bitter divisions within the Trump administration and were opposed by many Republican lawmakers and businesspeople, the technology moves against China are likely to be politically popular on Capitol Hill and throughout some industries.

“Their theft costs us over $350 billion per year, so the bigger the better,” said Daniel DiMicco, a steel executive and trade adviser to the Trump campaign, referring to the forced transfer of intellectual property and other unfair practices alleged by the administration.

The business community, which long defended trade with China despite accusations of theft of intellectual property, has grown more dissatisfied with adverse treatment in the Chinese economy. With the Chinese government and state-owned enterprises playing an ever-larger role in the market, the environment for American companies has steadily deteriorated.

Still, American business groups expressed concern over the possibility that the United States tariffs would spur others around the world to raise their own trade barriers.