Low demand for US goods led to imbalance: expert

China made no concessions and proposal for a trade deficit reduction package for the US, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said on Friday, after some foreign media reported that China offered the US a huge deficit reduction package.

The report is untrue, and consultations on the trade issues between the two countries in Washington are ongoing and "constructive," Lu said at a regular press conference on Friday in Beijing.

The foreign media's report on China offering the US a $200 billion deficit reduction package by purchasing US goods and other measures is not true, according to a source familiar with the ongoing trade talks between China and the US in Washington.

"The last round of trade talks in Beijing shows that China will not negotiate with the US under harsh preconditions," and when the results of the talks in Washington come out, those rumors about China making a compromise will be dispelled, the source said on Friday.

"US officials familiar with the offer" told Reuters that China has offered US President Donald Trump a package of proposed purchases of US goods and other measures aimed at reducing the US trade deficit with China by some $200 billion a year. The alleged offer was made during the China-US trade talks in Washington, and is reportedly aimed at resolving tariff threats and other trade irritants between the world's two largest economies. But it was not immediately clear how the amount was determined.

'Disunity' in US team

As both sides are still in the middle of consultations or negotiations, it is very unprofessional to release information or rumors on the talks, and unhelpful to both sides, Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute, told the Global Times on Friday.

"China would like to reduce the deficit but it won't work in the way that the US has proposed, which simply sets a figure as a goal and China merely purchases the goods or services every year to meet this goal, because this violates the law of supply and demand," Bai said.

The US probably wants to increase pressure on China by releasing such a message, or reflects the disunity within the US team, Diao Daming, a US studies expert and an associate professor at the Renmin University of China, told the Global Times on Friday. "If the result is different from the report, then the US public might blame the moderates on the team, and this is what hardliners want to see."

A long-standing rift between US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and US President Donald Trump's "nationalist trade adviser" Peter Navarro "hit new levels" on the sidelines of the trade talks with China in Beijing earlier this month, CNN reported on Thursday.

Respect for free trade

Lu said that the consultations are part of a process of "mutual understanding and mutual accommodation."

The US has positively responded to China's concerns over the ZTE case, and this is a positive sign, Diao said. "China will also show its sincerity toward US concerns. However, this is not in response to US pressure, but based on the sincere will of solving the problem" and China's opening-up on its own initiative.

The primary reason for the imbalanced trade relationship is the low demand in China of US products that the US is willing to provide, Bai noted. "The US government occasionally contradicts itself. For instance, it bans its high-tech companies from selling products and technologies to China, but, at the same time, complains about the huge deficit."

"The US should realize that the deficit will not be reduced simply by increasing exports of agricultural or energy products to China, and it should learn to respect market forces," Bai said.