Chinese government uged to hasten efforts toward reforming its currency exchange rate.
The United States has called on China to hasten its efforts toward reforming its currency exchange rate against the dollar by January of next year.
US President Barack Obama, who has repeatedly said the yuan's undervalued currency has hurt the US economy, urged Chinese officials to let the yuan rise against the dollar by the time Chinese President Hu Jintao visits Washington in January, Reuters reported on Saturday.
"President Hu Jintao's visit in January would be an important time to look at exactly what the quantum of progress has been on this," said United States' National Security Advisor Tom Donilan.
The United States “would like to see China proceed apace on these reforms, because it's important we think to China, but it's important to the world in terms of a stable economic path forward," Donilan added.
"The pacing of this is obviously a sovereign decision by them,” noted Donilan, who accompanies Obama at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Yokohama.
The US claims that the yuan has been artificially undervalued, saying that such a low rating keeps exports relatively cheap and gives Chinese exporters an unfair advantage over their rivals.
But China has warned that any sudden rise in the value of the unit would pummel its businesses and trigger massive unemployment.
Meanwhile, the Chinese president assured US officials that the existing currency rate would not wreak havoc on the US economy.
“We will continue to steadily move forward the reform of the exchange rate regime in a self-initiated, controllable and gradual manner," Hu said.
Earlier in March, Governor of the People's Bank of China Zhou Xiaochuan said Beijing would eventually shift away from its special exchange rate policy.
HA/TG/HRF
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