The US president has warned China and other trade partners against escalation beyond the trade war

President Donald Trump has boasted about US military power and weapons that "nobody has any idea" about, in response to concerns that his tariff war with China could spiral out of control.

Trump raised tariffs on Chinese goods to 125% on Wednesday, in retaliation for mirror measures imposed by Beijing. China has yet to respond to the latest hike, although its Ministry of Commerce has previously vowed to fight the trade war "to the end."

Asked whether he was "concerned" about Beijing's possible next move - and potential "escalation beyond the trade war" - the US leader argued that Chinese President Xi Jinping is "one of the very smart people of the world" who would never "allow that to happen."

"We're very powerful. This country is very powerful. It's far more powerful than people understand. We have weaponry that nobody has any idea what it is, and it is the most powerful weapons in the world that we have. More powerful than anybody even, not even close," Trump told journalists in the Oval Office.

"So nobody's going to do that," Trump added, reiterating that Xi is a "very smart man" who "knows exactly what has to be done."

The US president, who has previously teased secret weapons using unusual scientific terminology, did not elaborate on the kind of weapons he was referring to this time.

Back in 2020, Trump touted what he called a "super duper missile" that could fly "17 times faster" than anything America's adversaries had in their arsenals. He also claimed that Russia's hypersonic technological breakthroughs resulted from stealing US missile plans during the presidency of Barack Obama - despite the fact that the US has yet to field an operational hypersonic weapon.

Moscow and Beijing have pulled ahead in the race to develop hypersonic weapons over the past decade. Russia put its first system of the kind, the air-launched Kinzhal missile, into service in 2017, while China rolled out its DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle two years later.

Russia has used both Kinzhal and the naval Zircon hypersonic missiles during the Ukraine conflict. Last November, Moscow also carried out the first combat test of its Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile fitted with multiple independently targetable warheads capable of hypersonic speeds.

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In December, after multiple delays and failed tests, Washington announced a successful test launch of its Long Range Hypersonic Weapon, being developed by Lockheed Martin since 2017. The US hopes to equip the first unit with a ground-launched variant of the missile by the end of fiscal 2025.