In a briefing with reporters, White House officials denied that domestic politics had influenced the decision.

They said Beijing had shown no sign of moving away from practices that harm the US, including rules that force western companies to share information with the aim of stealing it and subsidies that have put firms in a position to pump out products well beyond expected demand.

“They’re flooding the market,” Mr Biden said. “It’s not competing – it’s cheating.”

The White House said the tariffs were targeted and it did not expect them to stoke inflation, contrasting their approach with that of Mr Trump.

The former president, who once called himself a “tariff man”, has campaigned on a proposed across-the-board 10% tariff on foreign imports, which could jump to 60% for goods from China.

He has also attacked Mr Biden for promoting electric vehicles, a move he has argued will destroy US car companies, key employers in states such as Michigan that will be key election battlegrounds in November.

Erica York, senior economist at the Tax Foundation, said both candidates were “heading down the same path” of higher barriers to trade and looking inward “rather than looking at what we can do on the policy front that would actually make our sectors more competitive”.

She said the administration’s promotion of the tariffs as strategic was a “euphemism for protection for sectors that are politically important for this administration”.

“It comes down to a political economy calculus rather than what makes the most economic sense or what’s most affordable for US consumers.”

The US already imposes steep tariffs on electric vehicles made in China, which has made sales of such cars negligible.

But Washington has been watching warily as sales by Chinese companies in Europe and other countries increase.

White House officials said ensuring that green technologies were not dominated by a single country was critical to making the transition successful and sustainable in the long run.

While moves targeting electric vehicles are likely to have minimal practical effect, the business world is waiting to see if Europe will take similar steps, said Natasha Ebtehadj of Artemis Investment Management.