China hits back at US in currency row
China’s central bank on Saturday said US accusations that it was manipulating the yuan currency were misleading, a day after Beijing cautioned incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to handle their ties with care.
China’s central bank on Saturday said US accusations that it was manipulating the yuan currency were misleading, a day after Beijing cautioned incoming Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to handle their ties with care.
The remarks from Su Ning, a vice governor of the People’s Bank of China, were the bank’s first public reaction to comments from US Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner, who said this week that Beijing was manipulating its currency exchange policies to gain an unfair trade advantage.
“These comments are not only out of keeping with the facts, even more so they are misleading in analysing the causes of the financial crisis,” Su said of Geithner’s comments to the Senate Finance Committee, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
The exchange suggests a testy start to relations between the Obama administration and Beijing, which may tarnish vows of cooperation in combating the global economic slowdown and security threats.
China worries that its already slowing exports will be even harder hit by US policies to narrow their trade imbalance.
Meanwhile, ties between the United States and China, with its bulging exports and foreign exchange reserves, have also been strained by trade disputes that could worsen during the global economic slowdown.