China urges the US to end trade war.

247, with Sputnik - Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that some US government officials had expressed concerns that China was trying to become a usurper state. He rejected the allegations, saying that China is pursuing a peaceful path away from hostilities based on a strategy of cooperation.

In a press conference given to a special edition of the People's Daily newspaper, dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the establishment of Sino-American diplomatic ties, the Chinese Foreign Minister expressed Beijing's desire to reach an agreement with Washington on trade issues as soon as possible.

"Both sides need to make concessions and reach an agreement as quickly as possible, bringing good news to the people of both countries," Wang said.

The Chinese Foreign Minister also noted significant progress in bilateral trade consultations, adding that both sides sought to expand bilateral cooperation.

The US and China have been locked in a trade war since Trump announced a 25% tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports in June, in an attempt to address the trade deficit. Since then, both China and the US have triggered several rounds of additional trade tariffs, imposing fees in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

In late December, the United States imposed tariffs on approximately $250 billion worth of Chinese imports and threatened to apply the measure to another $267 billion. To put the scale of the damage into perspective, the United States imports over $500 billion worth of goods from China annually.

Towards the end of 2018, however, the two sides also made progress toward an agreement. On December 1, during a meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached a truce and agreed to de-escalate the trade war.