Shares wobbled Monday after US and Chinese officials traded jibes in their widening clash over trade and technology. China’s Shanghai Composite lost 0.3% to 2,890.08 after surveys showed a deteriorating manufacturing outlook in May. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index lost 0.9% to 20,410.88, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng shed 0.1% to 26,871.23. The S&P ASX 200 dropped 1.2% to 6,320.50. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.3% to 2,067.85 after Samsung Electronics’ Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong met with top executives of the company to discuss strategy as it weathers slowing demand for computer chips and smartphones and the repercussions of the trade conflict between Beijing and Washington. “In this rapidly changing environment, we need to keep our unwavering focus on long-term, fundamental leadership in technology,” Lee said in a statement provided by the company. India’s Sensex rose 0.8% to 40,031.29. Shares were flat Taiwan and rose in Singapore. Markets in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand were closed. A private survey, the Caixin manufacturing purchasing managers’ index, or PMI, held steady at 50.2 in May. But business confidence in the report issued Monday slipped to the lowest level since the series began in April 2012. The official manufacturing PMI, issued Friday, sank to one of the lowest levels in three years. China released a “white paper” report Sunday that blamed the conflict on the Trump administration, but stopped short of announcing details of a plan for retaliation against a US blacklisting of Huawei Technologies. On Friday, it said it would soon announce its own list of “unreliable entities” consisting of foreign businesses, corporations and individuals. Wang Shouwen, China’s vice commerce minister, said Beijing will issue more specific information on the list soon, but that it was aimed at enterprises that “violated market principles” and cut supplies of components to Chinese businesses for non-commercial reasons. Meanwhile at a meeting in Singapore, China’s defense minister warned its military would “resolutely take action” to defend Beijing’s claims over self-ruled Taiwan and disputed areas of the South China Sea. In his comments to defense chiefs, officials and academics at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Gen. Wei Fenghe did not direct that thread at the US, and US Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan was not in the audience. But Wei did have tough words on the trade war with Washington. “As for the recent trade frictions started by the US, if the US wants to talk, we will keep the door open. If they want to fight, we will fight till the end,” Wei said. “As what the general public of China says these days, a talk, welcome. A fight, we’re ready. Bully us, no way.” In the US, the stock market stumbled Friday to its first losing month of 2019 in May, primarily due to President Donald Trump’s decision to broadly wield his tariff powers, first against China over trade and then against Mexico over immigration. Friday’s losses came after Trump shocked investors by announcing plans via Twitter to impose tariffs on Mexico in a bid to compel the nation’s third-biggest trading partner to crack down on migrants attempting to enter the US “Let’s understand that trade conflicts are the catalyst for the real issue; slower global growth leading to stagflation and recessionary conditions,” Chris Weston of Pepperstone said in a commentary. “With the weekend news flow centering again on trade, where a Chinese white paper attributed the blame on relations to Trump, amid Chinese authorities investigating FedEx, it all suggests things will only get worse before they get better.” The move spurred a broad sell-off that sliced more than 350 points from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which closed down 1.4% at 24,815.04. The selling left the benchmark S&P 500 index 6.6% lower for the month as it lost 1.3% to 2,752.06.