China on Tuesday did not confirm a planned face-to-face meeting between President Xi Jinping and his American counterpart Donald Trump, after the US leader threatened new tariffs against Beijing amid an escalating trade war.

Trump said a meeting with Xi has been "scheduled" during the G20 summit in Japan later this month, and that he expected the Chinese leader to attend.

"We have noticed that the US has repeatedly publicly expressed its expectation that the Chinese and US heads of state will meet during the G20 summit," foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular briefing.

"If there is any news in this regard, we will release it in due time."

A Trump-Xi meeting would mark a turning point in the bruising trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies, which has spooked markets worldwide and sparked worries about the global economy.

Negotiations to resolve the dispute stalled last month after Washington increased tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, sparking retaliation from Beijing.

Trump told CNBC on Monday that he would be "surprised" if Xi did not attend the meeting.

"I think he's going, I haven't heard that he's not," the US president told the channel.

Asked if a no-show by Xi would lead to tariffs kicking in on a further $300 billion in Chinese imports, Trump said: "Yes it would."

Trump has been trying to strongarm China into fundamental changes in trade and economic policies that he argues have for decades put the United States at an unfair disadvantage.

Beijing, meanwhile, has said that while it is willing to negotiate, it will not be bullied into compromising on its core principles.

"China does not want a trade war," Geng said. "If the US is willing to negotiate on an equal footing, our doors are always open."

"If the US insists on escalating trade frictions, we will resolutely respond and fight until the end."

G20 won't produce 'definitive' US-China deal: Official
Washington (AFP) June 11, 2019 - The Group of 20 summit later this month could lead to progress towards a trade deal with China but is not the venue for a "definitive agreement," US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Tuesday.

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Xi Jinping wants a deal "very badly" and repeated that he expects to meet with the Chinese leader at the summit in Osaka.

"They are getting hurt very badly by the tariffs," Trump told reporters at the White House. "We expect to meet with President Xi very shortly. We think we'll meet with him at the G20."

Talks between Washington and Beijing broke down last month after Trump accused China of reneging on commitments and after the United States took aim against China's tech behemoth Huawei.

"Look, we had a deal with China and then they went back on the deal," Trump said Tuesday. "Unless they go back to that deal I have no interest."

The countries have hit each other with steep tariffs on more than $360 billion in bilateral trade, rattling financial markets and business confidence.

- A path forward -

The impasse has raised hopes that, on the sidelines of the G20 leaders' summit, Xi and Trump might jumpstart efforts at resolving the impasse. However, Ross tamped down expectations for a final agreement, which he said "is going to be thousands of pages."

"At the G20, at most, it will be... some sort of agreement on a path forward," Ross told CNBC. "It's certainly not going to be a definitive agreement."

But he said there eventually will be a deal.

"Even shooting wars end in negotiation."

Trump last month started the process to impose 25 percent tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese goods and on Monday threatened to slap those duties on China immediately if Xi does not show up for the meeting in Osaka.

Ross defended the use of duties saying they are producing good outcomes, and said financial markets overreacted to the various tariff threats, including those against Mexico that had been due to take effect on Monday.

"I think what people have to learn to do, judge this administration by results. Don't judge it by interim sound bites," he said.

In a twitter screed Tuesday, Trump hammered home that point:

"Tariffs are a great negotiating tool, a great revenue producers and, most importantly, a powerful way to get... Companies to come to the U.S.A and to get companies that have left us for other lands to come back home."

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