China’s State Council Information Office has spoken. The department of the central government released what it called a white paper entitled, “China’s Position on the China-US Economic and Trade Consultations.” It is China’s position on the trade war with China. Much of it deals with the contrast of the Trump Administration attitude toward tariffs and those before it.

The document was purposefully broken into three sections. The first said the U.S. provoked the current trade war. China’s actions are only a reaction to that, the argument continued. The second is that the trade war has put the global economy at risk. The third states that a new set of meetings between the two nations.

The last part of the document was conciliatory, a sign China has not given up on trade talks. Chinese vice commerce minister Wang Shouwen said the conclusions of any conversation would need to be definitive: “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.” The People’s Daily, China’s official paper added:

Wang called on the U.S. to meet China half way, uphold the spirit of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, and jointly promote the stable and healthy development of bilateral economic and trade relations.

It has been unclear for weeks when new talks will begin. Since then, the U.S. has blocked the sale of products from huge telecom Huawei. China has said it will stop imports of U.S. soybeans. It has also threatened to withhold exports of rare earth metals used in consumer electronics and military products.

There has been no reaction to the Chinese document. Even Donald Trump’s Twitter feed has been silent.

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