Beijing, China - China offered to work closely with the European Union to push back against US President Donald Trump's ongoing trade war.

Speaking with European Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic in Beijing, Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng said that Trump's trade war was an opportunity for the EU and China to jointly resist protectionism.

"China is willing to work with the EU to strengthen dialogue and exchange, handle economic and trade differences in the proper manner, expand mutual openness, and promote the healthy, stable development of China-EU economic and trade relations," He said, per news agency Xinhua.

"China stands ready to work with the EU to implement the important consensus reached by the leaders of the two sides, resist unilateralism and protectionism, and safeguard the multilateral trading system," he said on Thursday, in a not-so-subtle reference to Trump's aggressive economic policies.

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Sefcovic responded to the meeting with China's Vice Premier in a post on X, expressing the need "rebalance our trade and investment relations."

"We have mutual interest in addressing our bilateral and global issues as well as our differences," he said. "The quality of [EU-China] cooperation impacts our industries but also the global economy."

Earlier this week, Trump threatened some of the US' closest partners with sanctions if they work to undercut his torrent of tariffs.