Beijing (CNN) It's headline news in the rest of the world, but in China, US President Donald Trump's threat to sharply raise tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods has barely registered a mention on the news agenda.

Ahead of Thursday's meetings in Washington between the Trump administration and Beijing's negotiators, Chinese censors have stepped up efforts to suppress any voices not in sync with the official line.

As recently as last week, both sides were expressing optimism over the "substantial progress" made in "productive talks." Trump himself even hinted at an upcoming visit to the US by Chinese President Xi Jinping to sign a bilateral trade deal.

But matters took a surprising turn last Sunday night when the US President fired off a pair of tweets complaining about the pace of negotiations and threatening to raise the tariffs from 10% to 25%.

China's strictly-controlled state media still has not reported the detail of the tweets, nor the stern remarks by top US trade negotiators accusing their Chinese counterparts of "reneging" on previously agreed measures.

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