China, bristling at calls to revalue the yuan, ruled out any change to its currency peg during a visit by US Treasury Secretary John Snow yesterday but offered a token easing of its capital controls.
Snow, who landed in Beijing yesterday afternoon, is under pressure at home to urge China to revalue the yuan, which is pegged to the dollar, to save jobs at hard-pressed US factories.
The International Monetary Fund weighed in yesterday, saying it was in China's best interests to move towards a more flexible exchange rate system.
"Such a move would improve the central bank's ability to control money and credit growth, and also help cushion China's economy from domestic and external shocks," IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler said in a statement.
But China stood its ground.
"There won't be any change in the exchange rate just because someone is visiting China," a spokesman for the central People's Bank of China said.
Shortly after Snow arrived, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan (
"The stable exchange rate of the renminbi is conducive to the economic stability and development of China, Asia and the world," he said.
American manufacturers claim a cheap yuan, held at around 8.3 to the US dollar, gives Chinese rivals an unfair edge.
Snow has said little publicly while in Asia about China's currency but Japanese Finance Minister Masajuro Shiokawa said they had agreed in talks in Tokyo the market should set the value of the yuan.
Snow was due to meet central bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan (周小川) and Finance Minister Jin Renqing (金人慶) yesterday.
"I think John Snow is wasting his time because China is not going to revalue its currency because the US wants them to," the Economist Intelligence Unit's chief economist, Robin Bew, said in Hong Kong.
China is worried about the damage a revaluation may cause to export growth that has helped fuel one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
The state-run China Daily newspaper said it did not want the yuan to be caught up in the 2004 US presidential race.
"China's currency, unfortunately, is in a position of finding itself involved in the finger-wagging sessions that accompany this essentially American saga," it said in a commentary under the title "Don't meddle with the yuan."
But Beijing, continuing with a series of adjustments to capital controls aimed at easing the yuan's appreciation, said it would raise the limit on the amount of foreign exchange Chinese travellers could buy from banks.
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
RSS