China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that the United States was to blame for flip-flopping in bilateral trade talks.
"When conducting trade and economic negotiations, the US must give up its pressure tactics. The US must prove its sincerity and act honestly to reach a trade agreement," she said at a briefing.
Earlier, as US-China trade negotiations were underway in Shanghai, Trump said on Twitter: "The problem with them waiting ... is that if and when I win, the deal that they get will be much tougher than what we are negotiating now ... or no deal at all."
The two countries have been embroiled in a trade dispute since June 2018, when US President Donald Trump slapped 25 percent tariffs on Chinese goods worth $50 billion in a bid to fix the bilateral trade deficit.
In May, the United States intensified the trade war when it imposed a 25 percent tariff on another $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. China, in turn, pledged to retaliate by hiking tariffs on $60 billion worth of US imports in June.
Since then, the two sides have exchanged several rounds of tariffs, but signs that the conflict was nearing a resolution appeared during Trump’s meeting with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka in June. At that time, Donald Trump said that the United States won't add fresh tariffs on Chinese exports.
A new, 12th round of US-China trade consultations started on Tuesday in Shanghai. Negotiations reached an impasse after the 11th round, which took place in the first half of May in the United States.
