China will import only what it needs

In the joint statement issued after the US-China trade talks on May 17-18, China pledged to significantly increase purchases of US goods and services. But there is a caveat to such a commitment: the products and services from the US, or any other country, must be those that Chinese people are willing to buy.

This means China will not buy additional US products and services it does not need, nor is China likely to switch purchases from other countries to the US.

This piece of information came at a news briefing in Washington on Saturday morning, hours before the joint statement was released. Speaking to the media toward the end of what he said was a "positive, pragmatic, constructive and productive" visit to Washington, Vice-Premier Liu He said China and the US reached consensuses on economic and trade issues and pledged to not engage in a trade war.