The US’s labelling of China as a currency manipulator “signifies the trade war is evolving into a financial war and a currency war,” and policymakers must prepare for long-term conflicts, Chen Yuan, former deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, said at a China Finance 40 meeting in Yichun, Heilongjiang.

Former PBOC Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said at the gathering that conflicts with the US could expand from the trade front into other areas, including politics, military and technology.

He called for efforts to improve the yuan’s global role to deal with the challenges of a dollar-denominated financial system.

The PBOC allowed the yuan to weaken below 7 to the dollar this week, prompting the US to accuse China of currency manipulation. President Donald Trump said talks with China planned for next month could be called off.

Domestically, the conflicts added a new dimension to China’s balancing act: how to support the economy while avoiding an exchange rate that widens its rift with the US.

The US currency-manipulation charge is part of its trade-war strategy, and it’ll impact China “more deeply and extensively” than the trade differences, Chen said Saturday.

While China should try to avoid further expanding the disputes, policymakers must be prepared for long-lasting conflict with the US over the currency.

The US’s move is an “appalling” act to gain an advantage during trade negotiations and is doomed to fail, the Communist Party’s flagship newspaper People’s Daily said in a commentary Saturday.

While markets haven’t reacted too strongly to the weakening yuan, it is possible that “the yuan could weaken further on unexpected shocks in the future,” Yu Yongding, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said in Yichun.

With policymakers seemingly determined to make the yuan more flexible, the PBOC “should be patient and not adjust policies in haste because of short-term market volatility,” Yu said. “It won’t benefit the PBOC’s credibility and won’t benefit forex reform.”