Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng reiterated at that China is willing to work with US to address each other’s core concerns to reach the phase one trade deal. And, “this is in line with the interests of both China and the United States, and of the world”. Gao also dismissed “outside rumors” regarding farm purchases and tariff rollbacks a sticking points as “not accurate”.

WSJ reported that China has invited top US trade negotiators for another round of face-to-face meeting in Beijing, preferably before next Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday. But US have indicated that they’re only willing to travel if China would make clear its commitments on intellectual property protection, forced technology transfers and agricultural purchases.

Separately, on the issue of Hong Kong, China continued to express strong objections to the passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. Geng Shuang, spokesman at Foreign Ministry, said “we urge the U.S. side to cease this activity, stop before it’s too late and take measures to prevent these measures from becoming law, stop meddling in Hong Kong’s affairs and China’s affairs”. He added, “If they must insist on going down this wrong path China will take strong counter-measures.”

The status of US-China trade agreement phase-one is back into question with recent comments. It’s even unsure if the negotiations could be completed within this year. December 15 is the next key date, when tariffs on around USD 156B of Chinese goods are scheduled to take effect.

According to a Bloomberg report, Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said at a dinner Wednesday night that he was “cautiously optimistic”. Zhang Yansheng, the principal researcher of China Center for International Economic Exchanges said today that the phase-one could be reached this year is there is “no disturbance”. he added, “The optimistic view is that the phase-one deal can be reached within this year, and a more pessimistic one is that the first phase will be dragged to some point next year.” But Hu Xijin, the editor of the state-backed Chinese tabloid Global Times, warned “few Chinese believe that China and the US can reach a deal soon.” He added, “China wants a deal but is prepared for the worst-case scenario, a prolonged trade war.”

On the US side, President Donald Trump complained to reporters in Texas that “I don’t think they’re stepping up to the level that I want.” White House spokesman Judd Deere said “negotiations are continuing and progress is being made on the text of the phase-one agreement”, without further elaboration.

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said yesterday that “we are optimistic we can get something done” on US-China trade deal. And, “if our negotiators felt there was no hope, they would have stopped.” Though, he also reiterated President Donald Trump was “OK either way” with or without a deal.

Ross said “he likes the tariffs we’re collecting. It hasn’t hurt import prices — they’re actually down from a year ago — it hasn’t hurt consumer spending, so it doesn’t bother us.” Trump said earlier in a cabinet meeting that “China’s got to make a deal that I like, if they don’t, that’s it.”