Chinese stocks cemented their position as the world’s worst performing major equity market on Monday, as they missed out on the return of some stability following last week’s global ructions.

After rising 22 per cent in 2017, the CSI 300, an index of some of the largest companies listed on the Chinese mainland, has tumbled by the same amount so far in 2018, making it one of the bigger casualties of the US-China trade dispute. China’s ambassador to the US, Cui Tiankai, told Fox News on Sunday that Beijing had not wanted a trade war but had “to respond and defend our own interests”.

The sharp drop in Chinese equities, which hit a record peak in the middle of 2015 before plunging for the rest of that year, comes at an awkward time for foreign investors after index provider MSCI in June included more than 200 of the A-shares in its widely followed emerging market benchmark for the first time.