Amid confrontation and standoff in the China-United States trade dispute, Chinese experts have also seen negotiations and flip-flops demonstrated by the US government.

Chinese Academy of Social Sciences researcher Yu Yongding analyzed the truth behind the so-called trade imbalance between the US and China in six aspects.

First, the US miscalculated its trade deficit with China to make the number bigger.

Second, reducing competitiveness of US companies and shrinking US domestic bank deposits are the main reasons of the US trade deficit, especially the latter.

Third, the trade deficit is a multilateral issue, not a bilateral one. Although China has a trade surplus with the US, it has a deficit with other countries.

Fourth, just because China has a trade surplus with the US does not mean China has taken advantage of the US. On the contrary, the US has gained actual resources by paying its “green back”.

Fifth, China is maintaining a good international balance of payments. Its trade surplus accounted for 1.4 percent of its GDP last year, reduced from nearly 10 percent in 2007. Therefore, it is unreasonable to blame China for having a “mercantilist trade policy”.

Sixth, there are many products that China wants to buy but the US does not want to sell. If the US opens up wider, or eases its ban on high-tech products export to China, its trade deficit will be better.

However intense the dispute is, the good news is that a trade war has not yet broken out — additional tariffs listed by both sides have not become reality. Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the board at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said the day the US launches the “war” will be the time it goes toward being isolated.

“The US has adopted unilateral, protectionist policies to the European Union, Canada, Mexico and China. Isolationism is fatal, and will be a major barrier for future development of the US,” Wei said.

“A trade war won’t solve the China-US trade imbalance in the long run — even though it might work temporarily. The ultimate solution to the China-US trade dispute is to persuade the US to give up protectionism.

Trump may be a good businessman, but he cannot be a good national strategy maker and implementer if he only cares about short-term interests and not long-term interests, Wei said.

Wei’s colleague, CCIEE chief economist Chen Wenling agreed, saying that Trump, as well as the US government, has been “trapped in a swamp”, isolated by the international community.

“He puts US national interests above global interests, and US domestic rules above international rules. He has injected a super stimulant called ‘America First’ to the US people. If this situation continues, US international credit and influence will drop sharply,” she said.

Since Trump entered the White House more than a year ago, the US has quit the TPP, the Paris climate agreement, the Iran nuclear deal, UNESCO and the UN Human Rights Council. Its next step might be "quitting the United Nations, or quitting Earth and moving to Mars once and for all", Chen joked.

“What the US has done means it has overlooked the international rules and orders formed after World War II. It describes China as a ‘revisionist power’ in its national security strategy report, failing to realize that the top revisionist to the current international rules and orders is the US itself,” Chen said.

The US was one of the major creators of the current international orders since the end of World War II, but is now a major challenger. Long Guoqiang, vice-president of the State Council’s Development Research Center, said the current global governance system, although it’s imperfect, has met the needs of globalization on the whole.

“Today, however, 10 years after the 2008 global financial crisis, the US is carrying out unilateral trade measures, so we have to be cautious of these measures’ influence to globalization.

“Globalization is never smooth, but is inevitable. Big powers have a bigger impact on the progress of globalization and so their governments should take more global responsibility — they should not just serve their own countries, but also consider the interests of the world and entire humankind,” Long said.

As Yu Miaojie, vice-president of the National School of Development at Peking University, wrote in a commentary in his new book, “the biggest certainty of Trump is his uncertainty, which means his term of office is doomed to be a period of trouble for China-US trade, and even world trade”.

“The best strategy for China to cope with the trade conflict is promoting negotiations while preparing countermeasures. We should wish for the best and prepare for the worst at all times. After all, the result of the China-US trade dispute won’t become apparent in just two or three years.”

The CCIEE’s Wei Jianguo also said China is not afraid of a “trade war”, and if a war breaks out, China will let the US feel the pain.

“It is very likely that the future China-US trade relations will stumble, with conflicts and talks all the way. But the US will lose more in a ‘war’, and will deeply regret losing China as a market of huge potential,” he said.

He also believed that the essence of the China-US trade conflict is not tariffs, but a fight of different systems.

“The US sees the unstoppable rise of China and the recession of itself. Additional tariffs are merely a measure to extend its global advantages.”

However, problems will get solved more easily considering US containment as no more than a trade issue, said Su Qingyi from the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the CASS.

“We don’t deny US intentions to curb China’s rising do probably exist, but other intentions can lead to similar tariff lists as well,” he said.

"Trump has abandoned the way of containing China through regional trade treaties — which was used by the Obama administration, and adopted unilateral sanctions and bilateral negotiations, attempting to force China to accept related rules. Both ways try to limit China by setting rules."

Facing trade tension with the US, China’s fundamental measure is constant reform and opening-up, said Wang Yiming, vice-president of the DRC.

“China’s opening-up is not because of pressure from the US, and it will not be deterred by its challenges,” Wang said. “China will not yield to any exterior pressure, nor will it change its steps of development.”

The center’s Wei Jianing also said the trade conflict reflects the urgent need of opening-up.

“How should China deal with trade friction? Tactically, it should speed up its opening-up to fight protectionism. Also, it should improve the coordination among domestic governmental agencies,” he said. “Besides, China and the US should reach a consensus of reform, including domestic reforms and reforms of international organizations. Now that the world economic recovery is weak, efforts from all sides are needed to promote such a consensus.”