Defeating China in a trade war has been President Trump's goal, a major issue in his campaign. He and many American workers routinely blame China for America's economic woes. But is the US trade deficit with China as high as people say it is? CGTN's Wang Guan did a little research on that.

WANG GUAN "The White House says the U.S. trade deficit with China is too high but it may be a lot lower than it seems. The U.S. imported 463 billion dollars in goods from China in 2016 and exported 116 billion. Let's do the math. Subtract imports from exports and we get a U.S. deficit of 347 billion. President Trump says based on this calculation, China is beating the U.S. in trade. The question is by how much Well not by as much as this first set of figures suggests. When you factor in a second set the deficit is lower."

In 2016, the U.S. ran a surplus of $37.3 billion with China in services. The U.S. Congress says that was the largest surplus the U.S. ran with any of its trading partners. And when we take a closer look at China-U.S. in goods, the deficit is lower still. Not all imports from China are actually Chinese. A big chunk of them - are so-called intermediate goods. That are parts made in other countries-assembled in China and then shipped back for sale. According to Oxford University, when we subtract the value of non-Chinese intermediate goods, it cuts the size of the U.S. trade deficit with China BY HALF. That brings the China trade deficit closer to the one the U.S. ran with the European Union.

If the value of these imported components is subtracted from China's exports, the US trade deficit with China is reduced by half. About the same as the US trade deficit with the European Union.

So, let's consider the iPhone. The U.S. magazine, Forbes, says to produce the 2009 version, Chinese factories used 11 dollars' worth of parts imported from U.S. companies. And 172 dollars' worth of components from other countries. But when they are shipped back to the U.S., the Phone sold roughly $600. And what did Chinese companies earn out of all this Around $6.50. Just over 1% of the retail price. Apple, and other American companies, received 70% of the retail value. However, U.S. official trade data shows nearly the full value of an iPhone belonging to China. That apparently inflated the size of the U.S. deficit. Global supply chains make U.S. trade figures misleading. They show where products are imported from, but don't show everyone who benefits from the trade. And here's one more myth to bust-that trade with China is a job killer. Let's listen to Trump.

DONALD TRUMP US PRESIDENT "We will defend our workers!"

Defend them from what!!! Try robots!

No, not Autobots and Decepticons. U.S. research shows automation has been wiping out U.S. jobs. And trade has been creating them! In fact, between 2010 and 2015, U.S. imports from China went up and so did the number of U.S. manufacturing jobs!

Finally, here's another factor skewing the trade figures. China wants to buy more high-tech goods from the U.S., but the U.S. bans their sale out of national security concerns. By some estimates if the U.S. lowered barriers for high-tech exports to China to the same level as France, it could cut the deficit to China by as much as 34%.

So, from China's perspective, any reasonable negotiation on cutting the deficit may have to start with how to calculate it.