Photo taken on May 10, 2019 shows the Phase I project of Tesla’s gigafactory in the Lingang industrial zone of Shanghai’s Pudong New District. The project is starting to take shape. Photo: People’s Daily Online

Tariff hikes by the United States will to some extent result in an increase of enterprise operational costs, lower competitiveness and fewer orders, but the impact on China's manufacturing sector is controllable, said Wang Zhijun, vice minister of Industry and Information Technology.

The 200 billion dollars worth of Chinese goods on which the United States imposed additional tariffs accounts for 41.8 percent of China's exports to the country, but only 8 percent of China's total exports, Wang pointed out.

Moreover, about half of the affected enterprises are foreign-funded, including many American companies, he noted.

In the January-April period, the amount of foreign capital used by the manufacturing sector increased by 11.4 percent. Foreign enterprises, such as Tesla and BASF, have ramped up investment in China.

The U.S. tariff hike has limited impact on foreign enterprises which seek long-term growth and need the Chinese market, said Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen.

Han Jun, Vice Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, said losing the Chinese market will be a hard blow for American farmers. However, China has the confidence to strike a balance between supply and demand of agricultural products through various policy tools and enriching the supply sources.

The country will tap into the markets in ASEAN countries, Japan, and the European Union, strengthen trade and investment cooperation with Belt and Road countries, and actively explore emerging markets, Han added.

After years of efforts, China's central SOEs have expanded their presence in more than 180 countries and regions across the world to carry out cooperation, according to Weng Jieming, vice chairman of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council.

The capital market has gradually resisted the impact of the U.S. tariff hike, demonstrating strong resilience and high capability, said Yi Huiman, head of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC).

Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, said the adverse effects on China's economy were limited and will gradually decline, adding that China's financial, stock, bond and foreign currency markets are stable.

The officials agreed that the most important thing for China to do is continue development to better cope with the China-US trade dispute.

China will now push ahead with supply-side structural reform, implement measures to cut taxes and reduce fees, create more growth potential through boosting domestic demand, and foster new impetus and high-quality industries, so that its industrial economy will move forward steadily, and its manufacturing sector can develop on a high-quality basis, Wang Zhijun said.