China Hits Back At US
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said the value of the Chinese yuan was not the main reason for the country’s trade surplus with the US. China has hit back at the US a day after President Barack Obama promised to take a tougher line with Beijing over currency and trade.
Ties between the US and China have been strained over an arms deal with Taiwan. Tensions have also risen over reports of Chinese cyber attacks on US-run websites and a planned visit to the US by the Dalai Lama. Mr. Obama vowed to ensure countries were not giving their currencies an unfair advantage against the dollar.
The US companies have complained all the time in the past that China keeps its currency artificially undervalued, giving its industries an unfair price advantage.
Obama was asked in a meeting with the Senate democrats, whether US will cut ties with Beijing over continuing trade disputes. He said that he would continue to make sure that China and other countries abide by the trade agreements. He warned it would be a mistake for the US to become protectionist. Obama said, “The approach that we’re taking is to try to get much tougher about the enforcement of existing rules, putting constant pressure on China and other countries to open up their markets in reciprocal ways.”
“But what I don’t want to do is for us as a country or as a party, to shy away from the prospects of international competition.” Mr. President also said that the foreign exchange rates would be monitored. Furthermore explaining he said, “One of the challenges that we’ve got to address internationally is currency rates and how they match up to make sure that our goods are not artificially inflated in price and their goods are artificially deflated in price,”
Mr. Ma said on Thursday that the value of yuan was at a reasonable level and China was not pursuing a trade surplus with the US.
Mr. Ma said, “At the moment… the level of the yuan is close to reasonable and balanced.” “Accusations and pressure do not help to solve the problem.” On Wednesday Mr. Ma told when he was meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader that President Barrack Obama would further erode ties between Beijing and Washington.
“We urge the US to fully grasp the high sensitivity of the Tibetan issues, to prudently and appropriately deal with related matters, and avoid bringing further damage to China-US relations,” he said. In 1950 China took over Tibet from India, China thinks Dalai Lama a separatist.
