In an interview with Fox News, US President Trump has underscored that he predicts a "full-blown deal" with China on trade, but that Beijing is not ready for it.
"I think we will make a great deal with China, and it has to be great because they've drained our country," Trump said.
Referring to the 500 billion dollars which Trump claimed China annually got from the US, he pledged that Washington will win an economic confrontation with Beijing.
READ MORE: China Faces 'Alarming' Local Government Debt Amid Mounting Trade War With US
His remarks came a day after Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Hanhui underscored that Beijing is not ready to minimize its trade with the US despite the ongoing trade conflict between the two countries.
"We do not want to minimize our trade with the United States. The volume of the Chinese-US trade depends on the US side," he pointed out.
China and the United States are currently engaged in a trade row which was triggered by the US slapping 25- and 10-percent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, respectively, from China in April.
READ MORE: China Says It Won't Turn Its Currency Into Tool for Trade War With US
Since March, the Trump administration has introduced several waves of tariffs worth tens of billions of dollars against Chinese goods in an effort to rebuild the US industrial base.
China has retaliated with its own tariffs against US goods, but continues to maintain that there can be no winners in a trade war.
