China’s Finance Ministry swiftly announced that it would imposed levies of 15 per cent on US coal and LNG and 10 per cent on crude oil, farm equipment, and the automotive industry starting on 10 February.

More importantly for the IT industry, China said it would impose export controls on “rare earths” such as tungsten, tellurium, ruthenium, molybdenum, and ruthenium which are essential in electronics manufacturing.

China said that this would “safeguard national security interests" but it could put the US IT industry in a bind. According to Newsweek China produces about 61 per cent of the world's rare earths, and the US relies on China for about 72 per cent of its rare earth imports.  While it can source them from elsewhere it will take some time to build up the supply chains.

Meanwhile, China has opened an antitrust investigation into Google, claiming it is suspected of violating anti-monopoly laws.

While the announcement did not specifically mention any tariffs, it came just minutes after Trump’s  ten per cent tariffs were to take effect.

Google products, such as its search engine, are blocked in China, but the company works with local partners to provide apps and games for the Chinese market.

In 2011, Google abandoned its Chinese-language search engine in the mainland and transferred it to Hong Kong. By 2014, China blocked the last way to access Google’s email service, Gmail.

China has used antitrust regulation to target US companies in the past.

In December, Beijing announced an antitrust probe into US chip juggernaut Nvidia over suspected violations of the country’s anti-monopoly law, a move widely seen as a retaliatory shot against Washington’s curbs on the Chinese chip sector.