China has accused the US of “resorting to intimidation and coercion” as Beijing stepped up its trade war counter-offensive with tariff increases on $60bn of American goods and a probe into US delivery group FedEx.

Wang Shouwen, the deputy head of Beijing’s negotiating team, on Sunday hit out at Washington for effectively barring US companies from using equipment made by Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications giant, saying it had complicated efforts to find a resolution to the trade impasse.

“The China-US economic and trade consultations have been severely frustrated by the US tariff increases and [Washington’s] abuse of export controls by including Chinese companies on the entities list,” Mr Wang said at the release of a Chinese government report on the state of US trade talks.