Trump claims China asked for renewed trade talks

President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that Chinese officials are prepared to return to the negotiating table, signaling there may be a path to a potential détente in his tit-for-tat trade war with Beijing.

“China called last night our top trade people and said ‘let’s get back to the table.’ They have been hurt very badly, but they understand this is the right thing to do and I have great respect for it,” Trump told reporters during a bilateral meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi on the sidelines of the G7 summit.

“They want to make a deal,” Trump continued. “That’s a great thing.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang appeared to dispute the president's claim that a pair of phone conversations had taken place.

"I haven't heard about this," he told NBC News.

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told reporters that Chinese Vice Premier Liu He had called for talks to resume when Trump pressed him for details during a bilateral meeting later in the afternoon with the Indian prime minister. It was not immediately clear, however, if Mnuchin was referring to a phone call Liu made to U.S. officials or his comments at a technology conference earlier in the day.

Trump’s whiplash-inducing comments come just 24 hours after White House officials — seeking to clarify a statement the president made about having second thoughts on his escalating trade war — said his only “regret” was that he didn’t raise tariffs further on Chinese imports. That claim followed Trump’s announcement Friday that he planned to increase existing tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods, from 25 percent to 30 percent, and to hike a new round of tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese exports from 10 percent to 15 percent.