China tempers trade talks, accuses US of ‘little tricks’

China’s Communist Party accused the Trump administration of playing “little tricks” on Chinese negotiators during recent trade talks on Friday in a commentary post shared by the country’s state-run news agency.

In the piece reportedly shared by Xinhua News Agency, an anonymous author going by the moniker “Taoran Notes” warned the U.S. not to expect China to make grandiose concessions on trade policy, while accusing U.S. negotiators of attempting to affect the “atmosphere” of the months-long trade talks, according to Bloomberg.

{mosads}“We can’t see the U.S. has any substantial sincerity in pushing forward the talks. Rather, it is expanding extreme pressure,” the blog post read. “If the U.S. ignores the will of the Chinese people, then it probably won’t get an effective response from the Chinese side.”

The blog continued by saying the U.S. is playing “little tricks to disrupt the atmosphere.”

The blog was republished Friday by the account of People’s Daily, a state-run newspaper, a rare move signaling support for the views espoused in the blog by the country’s leadership.

A former official with China’s commerce ministry told Bloomberg that the country’s stance on trade with the U.S. has hardened in recent months, and warned that China’s government was in no rush to reach a deal with the Trump administration.

“If the U.S. doesn’t make concessions in key issues, there is little point for China to resume talks,” said Zhou Xiaoming according to Bloomberg. “China’s stance has become more hard-line and it’s in no rush for a deal” because the U.S. approach is extremely repellent and China has no illusions about U.S. sincerity,” he said.

China and the U.S. have been embroiled for months in trade talks over a number of issues including the U.S.-China trade deficit and intellectual property theft. Those talks exploded last week with an announcement from the White House that the U.S. would raise existing tariffs on some Chinese goods, which was followed by Chinese retaliation on Monday.