China's 'firefighter' vice president avoids flames of US trade war

A senior Western diplomat said Beijing appeared to be reluctant for Wang to get involved after Liu had the rug pulled out from under him by Trump's reneging on a previously agreed "consensus" to resolve the trade spat in May.

Wang is extremely close to President Xi Jinping and reports directly to him, meaning if a similar thing had happened to Wang it would be seen as a personal snub to Xi, the diplomat said.

"You can embarrass the vice premier but not the vice president," the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Beijing has struggled to work out what Washington really wants, especially given the U.S. trade negotiating team has been split between those who tend to favour free trade and those who are more protectionist, a source with ties to the Chinese leadership told Reuters. This has led to confusing and sometimes contradictory statements from different officials.

"It's reneging on one's words," said the source, quoting a saying attributed to ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius that state media has increasingly used to refer to the U.S. administration's struggle to give a single unified message.