(Yicai Global) March 22 -- China will not sit idly by seeing its legitimate rights and interests being compromised and will certainly take all necessary measures to resolutely defend its legitimate rights and interests if the U.S. announces new tariffs on Chinese products.

China firmly opposes the U.S.'s unilateralism and trade protectionism and hopes that it could understand the nature of the mutually beneficial and win-win outcomes of China-U.S. economic and trade relations, said the head of the department of treaty and law at China's ministry of commerce in a written statement today to reiterate China's official position.

China hopes the U.S. will not take any action that could damage interests of both parties, the statement added.

The U.S. is expected to announce the results of its trade investigation against China and to impose new tariffs on information technology, telecoms and consumer imports from the world's second largest economy.

The so-called Section 301 investigation against China began on Aug. 14 last year when President Trump signed an executive order instructing U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to investigate whether China infringed upon the U.S. intellectual property in accordance with Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974. On Aug. 18, 2017, Lighthizer announced the official initiation of Section 301 investigation against China.

The Trump administration has found that China infringed upon a large amount of intellectual property rights of the U.S.-based companies, and therefore it may announce tariffs on USD50 billion of Chinese goods as early as this week, some media reports suggested yesterday.