US urged to maintain dollar stability, protect China's assets
- Source: Global Times
- [07:38 July 27 2009]
- Comments
By Kang Juan
As the first round of China- US Strategic and Economic dialogues start today in Washington, DC, Chinese scholars are calling for bilateral efforts to help protect China’s investment in US bonds and opposing US restrictions on high-tech exports to China.
Agreed to in April by President Hu Jintao and his US counterpart, Barack Obama, the joint meeting aims to bring together high-level officials for intensive, in-depth discussions to strengthen bilateral understanding and cooperation.
An opening session will feature an address by President Obama, with strategic and economic dialogues following during the two-day session. Hu won’t be present.
Leading the strategic track will be Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Vice Premier Wang Qishan and US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are set to chair the economic track.
Among 25 Chinese scholars contacted by the Global Times, 15 said they believe the safety of Chinese assets in dollars should be at the top of the dialogue agenda, and four called for the US to lift its restrictions on imports from China and high-tech exports to China. Another four said China should ask the US to limit the Tibetan and Xinjiang separatist movements in the US, with the remaining two arguing that the US should stop selling weapons to Taiwan.
“The dialogues will be centered on economic issues,” Wu Xinbo, vice dean of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, told the Global Times yesterday. “Due to the current economic crisis, China has gained a stronger position in the negotiations with the US. Beijing should make its concerns known and push the US to modify its China policies in the dialogue.”
Zhu Guangyao, assistant finance minister, said last week that China will explicitly raise the demand that the US “should make responsible economic policies, including financial and monetary policies, to maintain stability of the dollar and safeguard China’s assets.”
According to statistics released by China’s central bank, China’s foreign-exchange reserves topped $2.13 trillion by the end of June, up 17.84 percent, year-on-year. And information from the US Department of Treasury showed that by the end of May, China’s holdings of US Treasury bonds hit $801.5 billion, reaching a historically new high after slightly reducing US debt in April.
