China’s finance ministry has announced that it will impose additional tariffs of 25% on 106 US goods.
It follows a warning to the United States of retaliatory measures after Washington published a list of $50bn in Chinese products that will face US tariffs.
Last night, the Trump administration announced 25% tariffs covering around 1,300 industrial technology, transport and medical products.
The latest tariffs announced by China are on goods including soybeans, autos, chemicals, some types of aircraft and corn products, among other agricultural goods.
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The products targeted by the tariffs were worth $50 billion in 2017, according to a separate statement from the commerce ministry.
Extra tariffs will also be slapped on products such as whisky, cigars and tobacco, some types of beef, lubricants, and propane and other plastic products, the finance ministry said in its statement.
US orange juice, certain sorghum products, cotton, some types of wheat, as well as trucks, some SUVs, certain electric vehicles, will also be subject to the new duties, the finance ministry said.
In an earlier statement, the Chinese commerce ministry said that tariff proposals announced by the US were "completely unfounded, a typical unilateralist and protectionist practice that China strongly condemns and firmly opposes".
The ministry echoed a Chinese embassy statement in Washington, which said that Beijing will resort to the World Trade Organization's dispute settlement mechanism.
It said it will take "corresponding measures of equal strength and scale against US products" in accordance with Chinese law.
The US list, which includes electronics, aircraft parts, satellites, medicine, machinery and other goods, has yet to be finalised.
It is intended as a response to China's alleged theft of American companies' intellectual property and technology.
The review process will last through at least May before it can take effect.
China already retaliated on Monday to separate US tariffs on steel and aluminium by placing new duties on $3 billion worth of American goods, including pork, wine and fruits.
The tit-for-tat actions have raised fears of a trade war, rattling global stock markets.
US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has said he expects trade actions between the US and China will likely lead to a negotiated deal, but that it was unclear whether such talks would happen by the end of May or later.
"It wouldn't be surprising at all if the net outcome of all this is some sort of a negotiation," he said in an interview with CNBC.
"It's very difficult to put a specific time denomination on negotiations that are as complex as these.
"I'm frankly a little surprised that Wall Street was so surprised by it. This has been telegraphed for days and weeks," Mr Ross said.
US President Donald Trump earlier stood by his administration's actions, tweeting: "We are not in a trade war with China."
We are not in a trade war with China, that war was lost many years ago by the foolish, or incompetent, people who represented the U.S. Now we have a Trade Deficit of $500 Billion a year, with Intellectual Property Theft of another $300 Billion. We cannot let this continue!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 4, 2018
Mr Ross echoed those sentiments, telling CNBC that China's response was "relatively proportionate to the tariffs that we put on based on the intellectual property."
He added that he also expected other countries to start "coalescing against China" over its trade practices.
