Trade experts, executives and government officials in both countries say that even if the September and October talks produced an interim deal, the U.S.-China trade war has hardened into a political and ideological battle that runs far deeper than tariffs and could take years to resolve.

The Chinese delegation did not present any new proposals on core structural issues including intellectual property protections, forced technology transfers, industrial subsidies and other trade barriers, said a person briefed on the talks.

“The conclusion from the U.S. side was that we’re not close to an agreement,” the person said.

This source and another person familiar with the talks said that the Chinese delegation’s leader, Vice Finance Minister Liao Min, laid out China’s demands that any deal must remove all U.S. tariffs and be balanced so that it is not all concessions from Beijing and none from Washington.