Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao recommitted his country to opening its markets and instituting economic reforms, but he said U.S. demands that it change its currency policies were misguided.
“If the renminbi appreciates by 20% to 40%, according to the requests of the U.S. government, we do not know how many Chinese companies will go bankrupt and how many Chinese workers will be laid off ... and there will be major turbulence in the Chinese society,” Wen said Wednesday.
China’s renminbi is also known as the yuan.
In a speech before U.S. and Chinese policy makers and business people in New York, Wen stressed that China remains, foremost, an impoverished and developing country of 1.3 billion people that must deal with pressing problems at a time of questionable stability.
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In many parts of the country there is no electricity or clean drinking water, and there is little infrastructure. Each year, 24 million people enter the work force, many of them poor migrants from the countryside, and the government is strained to find them employment.
President Barack Obama “is under pressure for unemployment here too, but the pressure on my shoulders is more,” Wen said by way of a translator. “The U.S. employment problem doesn’t seem so big in comparison.”
It could still take several more generations before China becomes a truly modern country, Wen said.
But the U.S. is becoming impatient with China’s currency policy, claiming the yuan is being kept artificially low to boost exports, which in turn has the effect of exacerbating the U.S. employment rate. Earlier this month, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner threatened to rally other world powers to pressure Beijing to make reforms.
‘Our relationship is not always smooth sailing, but our common interests far outweigh our differences.’
Wen Jiabao
Wen rebuffed that pressure, saying China does not keep its exchange rate low, that it doesn’t seek a trade surplus and that it is not responsible for U.S. unemployment. Further, the products his country makes come from the type of labor-intensive jobs Americans have given up on.
Before 1994, China had a trade deficit with the U.S., and that too was not caused by the U.S. changing its exchange rate, Wen said.
“China has always been responsible with the yuan rate,” Wen said. “During the financial crisis, we kept the rate relatively stable while many other countries deliberately deflated theirs.”
Since June 19, when China said it would allow more flexibility and greater influence by market forces in setting its value, the yuan has risen about 1.9%.
However, Wen added that he was optimistic the U.S. will get through its current economic woes and rebound, and that the two nations will continue a prosperous relationship.
“Our relationship is not always smooth sailing, but our common interests far outweigh our differences,” Wen said. |
狗仔卡
发表于 2010-9-23 08:44 AM
我短没短, 我不告诉你.
发表于 2010-9-23 09:01 AM
