The male driver "intended to rush into the US General Consulate in Shanghai", a tweet from the state-run People's Daily newspaper said.
The driver "has been controlled", it added.
Images posted on social media showed a black car which appeared to have mounted the pavement and rammed into barricades next to a sentry box at the consulate, in the city's central Xuhui district.
A Chinese-language report on Caixin website quoted police at the scene as saying the driver was drunk.