Beijing, China - China on Thursday slammed President Donald Trump's new investigation into allegedly unfair practices pursued by US trade partners, calling it a case of "political manipulation."

Trump announced a swathe of wide-ranging trade probes on Wednesday, primarily investigating whether certain countries are "exporting their problems with excess capacity and production to us."

Targeting China, the EU, Japan, India, and many other other US trade partners, the move is seen as an effort to revive Trump's sweeping tariff policy after it was previously struck down by the Supreme Court.

In response to US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer's announcement, China's foreign ministry on Thursday declared that "so-called overcapacity is a false proposition."

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"China opposes using it as an excuse for political manipulation," foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said during a regular news conference, adding that "tariff and trade wars do not serve the interests of any party."

"When it comes to handling the economic and trade issues between China and the US, China's position is consistent and clear. We oppose any form of unilateral tariff measures," Guo said.

Greer told reporters on Wednesday that the investigations "will focus on economies that we have evidence appear to exhibit structural excess capacity and production in various manufacturing sectors."

He did not specify if penalties would differ based on the country but confirmed that a second probe into forced labor will likely be launched "no earlier than tomorrow afternoon" and impact roughly 60 countries.