We're a little more than a week away from Trump's hypothetical meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G-20 summit and official state-controlled media is making it clear that Jinping is not going to give Trump everything he wants.
An editorial published in the Chinese Communist Party journal yesterday stated that China won't give Trump what he wants as a matter of basic dignity and principle.
From Reuters:
(Reuters) - The United States has underestimated the Chinese people's will to fight a trade war and Beijing is prepared for a long economic battle, an influential Chinese Communist Party journal said on Sunday. [...]
"China will not be afraid of any threats or pressure the United States is making that may escalate economic and trade frictions. China has no choice, nor escape route, and will just have to fight it out till the end," the commentary said.
"No one, no force should underestimate and belittle the steel will of the Chinese people and its strength and tenacity to fight a war."
Trump has stopped making (bad and incorrect) economic arguments to support his trade war and has based most of his latest rhetoric on matters of pride and dignity, so it only makes sense for China to respond in kind. Trump is a bully and China is making it clear that they won't give in to bullying.
You know, negotiations between China and the United States may actually be getting somewhere if they were based on sound economic principles and equality, but they aren't.
The only way this is going to end is if Trump completely backs down or at least gives up most of his demands. Trump recently backed down from imposing tariffs on imports from Mexico without getting anything new during negotiations, but that doesn't necessarily mean his trade war with China will play out the same way.