Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga urged Chinese leaders at a meeting in Beijing to allow their currency to appreciate at a faster pace, joining calls from governments in Europe and the US.
Nukaga and five other Japanese ministers met with Chinese officials including Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan (
"I have asked China to consider letting the yuan rise at the fastest possible pace," the minister told reporters after the so-called High-Level Economic Dialogues. "The Chinese side responded that it will deal with the issue with flexibility."
European officials visiting China last week said a stronger yuan would help tame inflation that's running at the highest rate in a decade, and shrink its trade surplus. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (
G7 finance ministers and central bankers meeting in Washington in October singled out China, saying it should make the yuan more flexible to help resolve global trade imbalances.
The yuan has risen about 10 percent against the yen and 12 percent versus the US dollar since China scrapped a peg to the US currency in July 2005. The Chinese yuan, which is now linked to a basket of currencies, has fallen about 7 percent versus the euro.
"China should gradually move toward a free exchange rate," said Xinyi Lu (
Japan welcomes China's policy of "improving flexibility of the Chinese currency," according to a joint communique released late on Saturday in Beijing. The talks were organized in April by Japan's then prime minister Shinzo Abe and Wen.
Nukaga, who met European Central Bank (ECB) policy maker Christian Noyer in Tokyo last Tuesday, says China's strong economy and expanding trade surplus merit more yuan flexibility.
The Chinese economy, the biggest contributor to world growth, expanded 11.5 percent in the third quarter, increasing pressure for faster appreciation and higher borrowing costs to curb inflation. Consumer prices rose 6.5 percent in October from a year earlier, matching a decade high in August, a government report showed last month.
ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said on Wednesday it is in China's interest to let its currency rise faster.
Nukaga, in addition, told Wen that he and his counterpart are likely to meet again some time in "cherry blossom season," said a Japanese foreign ministry official, who asked not to be identified. Cherry blossom typically blooms around April in Japan.
Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren (
Taiwan aims to open 18 representative offices and seven Taiwan Tourism Information Centers worldwide by next year to attract international visitors, the Tourism Administration said on Saturday. The agency has so far opened three representative offices abroad this year and would open two more before the end of the year, it said. It has also already opened information centers in Jakarta, Mumbai and Paris, and is to open one in Vancouver next month and in Manila in December, it said. Next year, it would also open offices in Amsterdam, Dubai and Sydney, it added. While the Cabinet did not mention international tourists in its
EYES AT SEA: Many marine enthusiasts have expressed interest in volunteering for coastal patrols, which would help identify stowaways and illegal fishing, the CGA said Six thousand coastal patrol volunteers are to be recruited for 159 inspection offices to enhance the nation’s response to “gray zone” conflicts, Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sources said yesterday. Volunteer teams would be established to increase the resilience of coastal defense systems in the wake of two unlawful entries attempted by Chinese over the past three months, Ocean Affairs Council Minister Kuan Bi-ling (管碧玲) said. A former Chinese navy captain drove a motorboat into the Tamsui River (淡水河) in Taipei on the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, while another Chinese man sailed in a rubber boat into the Houkeng
NEXT LEVEL: The defense ministry confirmed that a video released last month featured personnel piloting new FPV drone systems being developed by the Armaments Bureau Taipei and Washington are pushing for their drone companies to work together to establish a China-free supply chain, the Financial Times reported on Friday. A delegation of high-level executives and US government officials were yesterday to arrive in Taipei to discuss with their Taiwanese counterparts collaboration on drone technology procurement and development, the report said. The executives represent 26 US manufacturers of drone and counter-drone systems, while the officials are from the US Department of Commerce and the US Department of Defense’s Defense Innovation Unit, along with Dev Shenoy, principal director for microelectronics in the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense
‘ANONYMOUS 64’: A national security official said that it is an attempt by China to increase domestic anti-Taiwanese sentiment and inflame cross-strait tensions The Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM) yesterday denied accusations by China that it had undermined regional security by carrying out cyberattacks against targets in China, adding instead that Beijing was responsible for raising tensions and undermining regional peace. The Chinese Ministry of State Security on WeChat accused a hacker group called “Anonymous 64” of targeting China, Hong Kong and Macau starting earlier this year through frequent cyberattacks. The group carried out cyberattacks to seize control of Web sites, outdoor electronic billboards and video-on-demand platforms in China, Hong Kong and Macau, it said, adding the hackers’