China welcomes the invitation from the US for a new round of high-level trade talks, and is discussing specific details with the US, said the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Thursday.

"The Chinese side believes that the escalation of the trade conflict is not in the interest of either party," MOFCOM spokesman Gao Feng stressed at a regular news briefing. Gao said teams from both sides have been in communication.

It is said that the Chinese team will include Vice Premier Liu He, the top economic adviser to Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) also confirmed that the government has received the invitation in its regular news briefing on Thursday.

"In fact, negotiation teams of China and the US have maintained various forms of communication and exchanged views on their respective concerns since the two countries held consultations on economic and trade issues at the vice-ministerial level in Washington last month, said Geng Shuang, MOFA spokesperson.

The invitation from senior US officials led by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was sent to China this week, White House Economic Adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox Business Network on Wednesday.

The news comes as the world eagerly awaits the Trump administration's final word on whether to activate tariffs on 200 billion US dollars' worth of Chinese imports after the public comments period ended last week.

Though, it is still unclear whether the trade talks would affect the tariffs, the news has drawn positive responses from the market. China's yuan opened at a nearly one-week high against the dollar, and the stock market also rallied. 

But experts said the restart of the negotiations signaled optimism but should not be overestimated. 

Zhang Ming, a senior economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the US-China trade conflict, which has impaired the long-term confidence of China's domestic investors, was one of the key causes of the great adjustment of China's stock market in 2018. 

He added that the US government is trying to expand the conflict from the trade area to the direct investment area and the human capitals area. 

Meanwhile, the US is said to be planning to freeze assets of Chinese companies that it said "steal" American intellectual property. MOFCOM spokesperson said China hoped the US side could give objective and fair treatment to Chinese firms' operations in the country, rather than making groundless accusations, seeking excuses to engage in trade protectionism and reducing foreign companies' confidence in the US business environment. 

(CGTN's Feng Yilei also contributed to the story.)