Beijing, May 10 (RHC)-- China has strongly rejected U.S allegations that Beijing has backtracked on all aspects of a bilateral trade deal, warning that it would not “capitulate to any pressure” as the two sides commenced make-or-break talks in Washington.

“The U.S. has assigned a lot of labels, such as backtracking, going back on one's word, and so on.  Lots of promises have been foisted on China,” said Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng Thursday.

His comments came a day after President Donald Trump accused China of reneging on the provisions of a draft trade accord the U.S. considered settled and threatened to more than double punitive tariffs on the Asian country.

“They broke the deal.  They can’t do that.  So they’ll be paying,” Trump said at a rally in Panama City Beach, Florida.  He also warned that there was “nothing wrong with taking in 100 billion dollars a year” in duties on imports from China in the absence of a trade deal.

Last Sunday, Trump said he would raise duties on 200 billion dollars of Chinese products from 10 to 25 percent beginning on Friday, reversing a decision he had made in February to retain them at 10 percent as the two sides made progress on trade talks.

His remarks prompted Beijing to threaten “necessary countermeasures” if Washington raised the tariffs, escalating the persisting trade war between the world’s two largest economies.