China Central Television's (CCTV) movie channel on Wednesday aired a film in which a Chinese woman and an American serviceman fall in love during wartime, which has been seen by netizens as a sign of a warming in Sino-US relations.

The film, Lover's Grief over the Yellow River, centers on a love story between an American air force pilot and a Chinese female soldier Anjie.

Some netizens suspect that it was aired to create a good atmosphere for the resumption of trade talks between China and the US, after Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump had a phone conversation, at the request of the latter, on Tuesday and agreed to meet at next week's G20 summit.

After negotiations between Beijing and Washington faltered last month, the movie channel aired several films about military struggles between China and the US during the Korean War (1950-53) for six consecutive days, such as Heroic Sons and Daughters, Battle on Shangganling Mountain, and A Surprise Attack.

However, observers said netizens should not make a random connection between the airing of movies on TV and current diplomatic affairs.

Tao Wenzhao, a research fellow with the Institute of American Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday evening that there is no need to overly-interpret the move of CCTV-6 and the film itself as he prefers to view the case as an accidental arrangement rather than political order.

There are also voices saying that there is no fairytale love between the two countries as the US-initiated trade war has deeply hurt the feelings of Chinese people.

Tao noted that people are sensitive after CCTV-6 aired films about the Korean War. However, it is okay to show those movies now.

Tao also calls for calm over China-US relations in the future, as "fighting while talking" will become normal.

Tao also noted that China needs to prepare well for the future, "we need to have a flexible mind and a calm heart to be good at both talking and fighting with the US."