BEIJING—Chinese President Xi Jinping is responding to the Trump administration’s trade-clash escalations with a bare-knuckle approach that makes a bruising fight more likely.
After President Donald Trump raised the ante last week on punitive tariffs against Chinese products, Mr. Xi told a group of 20 mostly American and European multinational chief executives on Thursday that Beijing plans to strike back, according to people briefed on the event.
“In the West you have the notion that if somebody hits you on the left cheek, you turn the other cheek,” the Chinese leader said, according to the people. “In our culture we punch back.”