"The US needs to recognize that the US and China are mutually dependent on each other. Our economic cycles are intertwined. We have more in common than sets us apart," China's Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said during an interview with the Wall Street Journal published on Sunday.

Asked to comment on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's comments on protectionist policies, Lou said: "Trump is an irrational type. If he were to do this, that would be in violation of the rules set by the World Trade Organization."

Trump has proposed tariffs of up to 45 percent on Chinese imports to force China to change its trade policies.

"If the US were to do what he proposed, then the US would not be entitled to its position as the world's major power," added Lou.

He cautioned to not "take the rhetoric in a presidential campaign too seriously...With a new administration, US-China ties should be more or less as they are now".

Lou gave the interview on the sidelines of the Group of 20 finance ministers meeting in Washington over the weekend. The leaders of the G20 will meet in September in China.

Trump, the front runner in the Republican Party's presidential nomination race and its primary in New York State on Tuesday, said that if he is elected president, China "will learn to deal fairly and justly or we will not deal at all".

In a statement from his campaign issued on Sunday, Trump said China is "in total violation of WTO (World Trade Organization) regulations" and the US "has incompetently allowed them to get away with this" and has failed to impose "equal or greater taxes and tariffs" on China.

At a campaign rally on Staten Island, New York, later on Sunday, Trump again criticized China.

"And I'm not angry about China, in fact I respect them," he said. "I'm angry at our leaders for being so incompetent that they allow it to happen."

Trump's 45 percent tariff has come under criticism from numerous US economists, Democrat presidential contenders and others, including his closest challenger, Texas Senator Ted Cruz , who said that it would be passed on to US consumers.

Wayne Morrison, a specialist in Asian trade and finance with the Congressional Research Service, told China Daily that Trump's tariff proposal "just wouldn't make much sense".

"No country can on its own impose trade restrictions that would violate their WTO commitments," he said in an interview on Tuesday.

"It would start a major trade war. If you think about it, 45 percent additional tariffs, that would eliminate a whole lot of trade between the US and China - and not just trade, all sorts of cooperation, such as investment. It would be a severe, severe blow to the commercial relations between the two countries. It's also going to hurt a lot of US companies."

Jeffrey Schott, a trade economist at the Washington-based Peterson Institute for International Economics, told the newspaper: "Almost any across-the-board tariff increase would violate US obligations under the WTO."

In the Journal interview, Lou also urged the US to increase its public and private investment as a way to improve the US economy and make a contribution to global economic growth.

aiheping@chinadaily.com.cn