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Donald Trump's new tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada also took effect on Tuesday, launching new trade conflicts with the top three US trading partners.
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Beijing also slapped export and investment curbs on 25 US firms, on grounds of national security, but avoided punishing any household names as when it retaliated against the Trump administration's Feb 4 tariffs.
"Trying to exert extreme pressure on China is a miscalculation and a mistake," a foreign ministry spokesperson told a press conference in Beijing, adding that China had never succumbed to bullying or coercion.
The latest retaliatory measures came as the extra duty of 10 per cent US President Donald Trump threatened for the world's second-largest economy took effect at 0501 GMT on Mar 4.
That makes for a cumulative 20 per cent tariff in response to what the White House considers Chinese inaction over drug flows.
China has accused the White House of "blackmail" over its tariff hike, saying it has some of the world's toughest anti-drug policies.
Analysts say Beijing still hopes to negotiate a truce on tariffs, deliberately setting its hikes below 20% to leave its negotiators room to hash out a deal, but each escalation reduces the chance of a rapprochement.
The new US tariffs represent an additional hike to pre-existing levies on thousands of Chinese goods.
Some of these products took the brunt of sharply higher US tariffs last year under then President Joe Biden, including a doubling of duties on semiconductors to 50 per cent and a quadrupling of tariffs on electric vehicles to more than 100 per cent.
The 20 per cent tariff will hit several major US consumer electronics imports from China that had previously escaped untouched, from smartphones and laptops to videogame consoles, smartwatches, speakers and Bluetooth devices.
China responded immediately after the deadline, with an additional tariff of 15 per cent tariff on US chicken, wheat, corn and cotton and an extra levy of 10 per cent on US soybeans, sorghum, pork, beef, aquatic products, fruits and vegetables and dairy imports from Mar 10.
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Some of these products took the brunt of sharply higher US tariffs last year under then President Joe Biden, including a doubling of duties on semiconductors to 50 per cent and a quadrupling of tariffs on electric vehicles to more than 100 per cent.
