Word: wen
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...budget report from the Ministry of Finance, released to coincide with the opening of the National People's Congress in Beijing on March 5, draws attention to debt levels being incurred by local governments forging headlong into massive infrastructural and development projects. Even as it was being distributed, Premier Wen Jiabao was telling NPC delegates that the authorities would slow both lending and new construction in 2010, and place additional curbs on speculative property investment. A mortgage discount for first-time property buyers - which made a fixed, 5% 20-year mortgage available for just above 4% - has already been eliminated...
...Wen was presumably referring to the U.S.: President Obama declared in a speech last week that he wanted to double U.S. exports over the next five years and challenged China to adopt a "market-oriented exchange rate" for its currency, the renminbi. But the policies that Wen was criticizing are in many respects what China has pursued for years. The renminbi has been pegged against the dollar since mid-2008, and overseas economists say the currency may be undervalued by as much as 40%. Trade is a key component of economic growth for China, the world's largest exporter...
...Wen's comments follow a period of deteriorating Sino-U.S. relations that began late last year, when he was accused of snubbing Obama during the Copenhagen climate talks. On Sunday, Wen said he had been slighted first when he wasn't invited to a meeting of national leaders during the conference in Denmark. He responded by sending a deputy official, which prompted criticism from some delegations...
...billion arms package to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China considers part of its territory. A month later, Obama met the Dalai Lama at the White House, further angering the Chinese, who consider the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader to be a "splittist" who advocates independence for Tibet. Wen blamed the U.S. for the recent difficulties, specifically citing the Taiwan arms sale and the Dalai Lama meeting. "The responsibility for the serious disruption in U.S.-China ties does not lie with the Chinese side but with the U.S.," he said. (See pictures of China's infrastructure boom...
...speech on Sunday, Wen shot down expectations that China would allow the value of the renminbi to appreciate significantly, saying it was correctly valued and would remain "basically stable at a reasonable level" this year. "We oppose nations finger-pointing or even using forceful methods to compel a country to raise the value of its currency," he said. He also worried openly about the value of China's dollar-denominated assets, including $895 billion in U.S. Treasury debt. He warned the U.S. not to depreciate its currency to boost trade, as it would hurt the value of Chinese-held assets...