The United States and China have moved to defuse dangerous trade war tensions that spiked on Aug. 23 when China announced new tariffs on U.S. imports, and with President Donald Trump retaliating the next day with new and higher tariffs of his own.
Vice Premier Liu He, China's chief negotiator in round after round of failed trade talks, said on Monday China is willing to resolve the trade war through "calm" negotiations. He also resolutely opposed the escalation of the trade war, an apparent reference to Trump's retaliation.
Liu also said nobody benefited from a trade war.
"We are willing to resolve the issue through consultations and cooperation in a calm attitude and resolutely oppose the escalation of the trade war," according to Liu.
"We believe that the escalation of the trade war is not beneficial for China, the United States, nor to the interests of the people of the world."
In his usual fashion, Trump again predicted a great trade deal with China is just around the corner. He claimed Chinese officials had contacted their U.S. trade counterparts overnight and offered to return to the negotiating table.
"China called last night our top trade people and said 'Let's get back to the table', so we'll be getting back to the table, and I think they want to do something," alleges Trump.
On the other hand, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said he hadn't heard a phone call between the two sides had taken place, as Trump falsely claimed. China's Commerce Ministry, which normally releases statements on trade calls, made no mention of Trump's claim.
Trump then lavished praise on President Xi Jinping, whom he called an enemy of the U.S. last week.
"They want calm, and that's a great thing, frankly," said trump. "And one of the reasons that he's a great leader, President Xi, and one of the reasons that China's a great country is they understand how life works."
U.S. media outlets said Trump has the habit of always predicting a deal will happen and saying he's happy with the tariff situation. He again repeated the same talking points, this time claiming negotiations will start again soon and a deal will come.
"I think we are going to have a deal," said Trump again.
The White House later said Trump regretted not raising the tariffs on China even more. Trump also seemed to back-off of his threat to order U.S. companies out of China. Experts said Trump has no power to do so in ordinary circumstances such as this.
Trump's trade war continues to weaken global growth and has raised market fears the world economy will fall into an economic recession.
