Analysts are concerned that a trade war between the U.S. and China would undermine markets, trade, and the ties between the two countries, The Washington Post reported.
China aims to tie the fallout from the trade war on President Donald Trump.
"The United States will be opening fire on the whole world and also opening fire on itself," Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng said Thursday, according to the Post.
Jorg Wuttke, former president the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, predicted: "It's a dark day tomorrow for global trade."
Trump's tariffs are set to hit $34 billion of Chinese imports Friday, and Beijing plans to respond with levies on equal amounts of goods, The Wall Street Journal reported.
U.S. firms in China are reporting increases in random inspections.
"Don't expect the 'war' to be out in the open in some imaginary tit-for-tat tariff battlefield. The real battle will be on the flanks," in unnecessary inspections, quarantines, and heightened scrutiny, said James Zimmerman, a partner in the Beijing office of Perkins Cole LLP, an international law firm, the Post reported.
Supply chains will also be negatively affected, said Cliff Tan, head of global market researchat Japan's MUFG Bank in Hong Kong. "It's like a war where everybody points the gun at themselves."
Anxiety has set in in the port city of Shanghai, said Kenneth Jarrett, that city's American Chamber of Commerce president.
"My hope is that with this start, people will feel that this cost is too great and we will not move on to the second wave," Jarret said, The Post reported.
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