China defiant on Trump's trade war, but some fear it hurts them

President Donald Trump may have struck a conciliatory tone in recent days, saying he was optimistic of making a deal to end his trade war with China. But on the streets of Beijing, the mood was mainly one of defiance at the tit-for-tat.To get more chinese news sites, you can visit shine news official website.

"We have never been afraid of anyone," said Yang Fang, who sells toy guns at a market in the city. He believes the trade war is "just an attempt by the U.S. to maintain its hegemony and stop China's development."

On Monday, Trump claimed that U.S. officials had spoken with their Chinese counterparts and that they "want to make a deal." However, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he was not aware of any calls between the nations.

The state-controlled China Daily newspaper said Tuesday that "China wants to make a deal, but that deal can only be reached based on equality and mutual respect."Trump's comments, made at the G-7 summit in France this weekend, were an apparent pivot after the latest salvos were fired last week between the world's two largest economies. Beijing announced new tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. goods in retaliation for Washington's own tariffs on $300 billion of imports from China.

In response, Trump tweeted that he would be hiking tariffs on a combined $550 billion of Chinese goods, and he also "ordered" U.S. businesses that deal with China to begin looking for alternatives. Experts say that in reality such a drastic measure would be legally and politically messy.

NBC News spoke with people on the street Monday. Most of these interviews were conducted before Trump's comments at the G-7, though the president's words did not receive widespread coverage here.

Dong Jian, a taxi driver in Beijing, was among many who reacted defiantly to Trump's part in the eye-for-an-eye trade exchanges.

"If you don’t need our 1.4-billion-people market, fine," he said, referring to China's status as the world's most populous country. "We don't like the trade war, but if we are being bullied we will fight back."

"Remember you are only some 300 million. Let’s see what happens to your soybeans," he added, a reference to U.S. agricultural imports.It's true that the trade war has at least the potential to cause pain for U.S. businesses and consumers.

New calculations from JPMorgan found that if the new tariffs take effect as planned they will cost the average American household around $1,000. And the American Chamber of Commerce in China said some 75 percent of its members — U.S. companies and individuals operating in China — told a survey in May that the trade war is having a negative impact on their businesses.

But it is also causing pain for Chinese companies, such as textile exporters in Suzhou profiled in a South China Morning Post report in June. Overnight into Monday, China's currency, the yuan, sank to an 11-year low not experienced since the 2008 financial crisis.