Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Studio live from our studio in central London. I'm Celia Hatton.

And I come to you as much of the trade between the world's two largest economies has dropped off a cliff.

And instead of a rapid move towards talks, the. and China are engaging in a war of words.

On this edition of NewsHour, we're going to be looking at China's strategy.

What's Beijing doing now that it's lost its biggest customer, the U.S.?

Our correspondent is on the ground at China's largest annual trade fair.

But first, just to give you a

flavor of what we're hearing from the two capitals, let's hear the latest from Beijing and Washington.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt read out a statement from President Trump at a media

briefing on Tuesday. The president has made his position on China quite clear, although I do have an additional

statement that he just shared with me in the Oval Office.

The ball is in China's court.

China needs to make a deal with us.

We don't have to make a deal with them.

There's no difference between China and any other country, except they are much larger.

And China wants what we have, what every country wants what we have, the American consumer.

Or to put it another way, they need our money.

Well, China's foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China had no choice but to react.

This tariff war was initiated by the U.S. side.

China has taken necessary countermeasures in order to defend its legitimate rights and interests

and international fairness and justice.

This is fully justified and lawful.

...