The U.S. is wielding "tariffs as a weapon to exert maximum pressure and seek selfish gains," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters at a Thursday briefing, after President Donald Trump raised tariffs on Chinese imports to 125%.

"This move is against the whole world," Lin said following Trump's latest measure, which came despite his surprise decision to pause planned tariffs on other American trade partners for 90 days.

Trump said China had shown a "lack of respect" by retaliating to his tariffs campaign. On Wednesday, Beijing announced it would increase tariffs on all U.S. goods to 84%.

Lin said Thursday that Beijing's response would safeguard the Chinese economy and uphold "the common interests of the international community."

Trump's tariffs policy, he added, does not have international backing and "will end in failure. Let me stress that tariffs and trade wars have no winners. China does not want to fight them but will not fear when they come our way."

"The U.S. has put its own interests over the public interests of the international community," Lin said. "This will meet with stronger opposition from the international community."

-ABC News' Karson Yiu

Key stock markets in Asia and Europe surged in Thursday trading, reacting to President Donald Trump's 90-day pause of most planned tariffs on American trade partners.

In Japan, the Nikkei 225 was up 9% and the broader TOPIX index was up 8%. South Korea's Kospi was up nearly 6%. Taiwan's Taiex index jumped 9.25% and Australia's ASX 200 rose 4.6%.

Key Chinese markets were also in the green, despite Trump's decision to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to a cumulative total of 125%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index climbed 3%, the Shanghai Composite Index jumped 1.29% and the Shenzhen Component Index rose 2.7%.

In Europe, Britain's FTSE 100 climbed 6%, France's CAC 40 6.4%, Germany's DAX 8%, Italy's FTSE MIB 7.5% and Spain's IBEX 7.2%.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called President Donald Trump's 90-day pause on the "reciprocal" tariffs a "welcome reprieve for the global economy," in a post on X Wednesday evening.

“As President Trump and I have agreed, the U.S. President and the Canadian Prime Minister will commence negotiations on a new economic and security relationship immediately following the Federal election," Carney added.

Carney was named as Canada's prime minister-elect in early March, after Justin Trudeau announced his intention to resign on Jan. 6.

-ABC News' Aleem Agha

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick appeared on Fox News on Wednesday, where he provided the backstory on how President Donald Trump's administration decided to initiate a 90-day pause on tariffs.

"Two days ago, the president truthed out that he was willing to negotiate with all these different countries that were interested. And then yesterday, he said he would do it in a bespoke fashion, one by one, individually. And the calls were unbelievable," Lutnick said.

Lutnick conveyed that he and Secretary Scott Bessent walked into the Oval Office on Wednesday and asked Trump how he’d like to handle the trade negotiations. Together, they agreed that they would single out China. According to Lutnick, the president issued his social media post with Lutnick and Bessent standing beside him.

When pressed on when deals might come to fruition, Lutnick said the deals will take some time; however, he said he immediately got to work making calls after the president’s announcement.

“Well, I think the real deals will take some time... but we're going to start meeting with countries. I started calling them right after we walked out of the Oval Office today, started calling countries, talking to them and telling them, okay, this is the time,” he said.

-ABC News' Kelsey Walsh