is a beautiful thing to watch.

His view is that Washington is combating

China's sharp practises, while helping

attract massive amounts of money into the US

through investments.

But key data from the trade war is telling an almost

opposite story.

If you look at the numbers alone,

it is very difficult to make the argument

that the US is winning.

In the year to the end of June, US exports to China

slumped $33bn or 21 per cent.

Chinese exports to the US, by contrast,

actually grew a little, rising one per cent or $4bn.

In July, according to numbers just announced,

China's surplus with the US grew still further,

and over the first seven months of the year,

China's total surplus was worth a hefty $168bn.

This is exactly the outcome that Mr Trump

was determined to avoid when Washington

imposed a flurry of tariffs against China last year.

And the relative lack of pain being felt by China

could also go some way to explaining

why Beijing seems fairly nonchalant when it comes

to negotiations with the US.

It's clear that Washington wants to talk.

Larry Kudlow, the top White House economic advisor,

said this week that the US side was

preparing the Chinese negotiating

team to come over in September.

He also held out the possibility that there

could be some softening in Mr Trump's threat

this month to impose new tariffs on Chinese goods worth $300bn.

For now though, Beijing is not sounding too keen

to concede to Washington's demands.