China's State Council Information Office issued a White Paper on China-US trade in September 2018, which was released on September 24. The 68-page White Paper criticised the US for flouting WTO provisions and instead of "free trade" advocating "fair trade". Painting the US as unreasonable and a "bully", it highlighted the mutual benefits of China-US trade till now and argued that China had adhered to international norms and practices. The paper contained a lot of data. It pegged China-US trade in 2017 at $  583.7 billion and said the US is China's biggest export market and 6th biggest source of imports. It said in the case of most hi-tech products that China exports to US it is only labour-intensive processing that takes place in China. China's Ministry of Commerce was cited as saying that in 2017 Chinese visitors to US for tourism, education and medical treatment spent $ 51 billion.  3 million Chinese visitors spent $ 33 billion in the US. There are 42,000 Chinese students in the US. By 2017, there were 68,000 US-funded enterprises in China with actualised investment. Investment by Chinese enterprises in 2016 was $ 67 billion. By the end of May 2018, China held $1.18 trillion in US Treasury Bills.  The Paper also said that in 2015, US-China investment supplied 2.6 million jobs in the US. Chinese investments are spread over 46 states generating more than 140,000 jobs. China is also the top export market for most of these states.   

Apparently refuting allegations of intellectual property theft, the White Paper pointed out that China had spent RMB 1.76 trillion, or 2.13% of the GDP, on R&D in 2017 second only o the US. It asserted that China does not force technology transfers on companies investing in China. It said that in China there are 2613 institutions of higher learning; 10,900 research institutions of all sorts; and 6.21 million people are engaged in R&D. It said that in 2017, China's State Administration of Press, Publishing, Radio, Film and Television had imported 31 American films at a cost of $ 650 million.The Paper listed the instances of US vetoing acquisitions by Chinese companies on grounds of security between 1990 - 2018.