The principles of traditional Chinese medicine offer valuable insights into resolving the escalating tariff or trade war between the world's two largest economies, a situation that China will "face fearlessly", Beijing's top envoy in Washington has said.

"Emphasizing addressing both the symptoms and root causes and strengthening the foundation while nourishing the source, TCM offers useful references for moving beyond tariff war and trade war," Ambassador Xie Feng said at the Traditional Chinese Medicine Culture Open Day event at the embassy on Saturday.

Xie likened international trade disputes to health issues that require long-term care, warning that short-term remedies — or prescriptions imposed on others for one's own illness — could worsen the situation.

To illustrate his point, Xie said global growth has stalled not because of external threats but because of internal stagnation.

"The main reason why global growth has hit a bottleneck is because it lacks momentum," he said. "So instead of fighting over the existing turf, a wiser solution will be making the pie bigger from a long-term perspective."