Asian stock markets experienced a sharp decline amid growing concerns over a global trade war, with Donald Trump referring to his tariffs as “medicine” and showing no intention of backing down.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index plummeted 13.2%, marking its biggest one-day drop since 1997, while the Shanghai Composite index fell 7.3%, the worst drop since 2020.

In other markets, Japan’s Nikkei 225 dropped 7.8%, and London’s FTSE 100 was down 4.85% in Monday.

US stock market futures indicated that additional losses were likely when trading begins later in the day.

As of 4 a.m. EST, S&P 500 futures were down 4.93%, the Dow Jones fell 4.32%, and the Nasdaq dropped 5.33%.

Markets are responding to ongoing uncertainty regarding the impact of President Trump’s newly announced tariffs on goods imported to the U.S.

Speaking on Air Force One on Sunday, President Trump stated that foreign governments would need to pay “a lot of money” to have his tariffs lifted.

“I spoke to a lot of leaders, European, Asian, from all over the world,” Mr Trump told reporters.

“They’re dying to make a deal. And I said, we’re not going to have deficits with your country.

“We’re not going to do that because to me, a deficit is a loss. We’re going to have surpluses or, at worst, going to be breaking even.”

Trump, who spent much of the weekend golfing in Florida, posted on his Truth Social platform, “WE WILL WIN. HANG TOUGH, it won’t be easy.”