China’s Xi Meets U.S. Diplomat as World Awaits Yuan Decision
April 11, 2010, 1:02 AM EDT
April 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Undersecretary of State Robert Hormats met China’s Vice President Xi Jinping on a tropical Chinese island amid speculation the country would move to revalue its currency.
Hormats, whose portfolio includes economic affairs, talked with Xi privately for about 20 minutes on April 9, the day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, in Beijing. Hormats, in an interview today, would only say they discussed “the economic and political relationship between the two countries.”
The meetings with Xi and Wang and tomorrow’s arrival of President Hu Jintao in Washington to attend a nuclear security summit and meet President Barack Obama, are examples of the surge in diplomacy between the two countries amid calls by the U.S. for China to raise the value of the yuan, which has been pegged to about 6.83 to one U.S. dollar since July 2008. The New York Times on April 8 reported China is “very close” to announcing it will change its currency policy.
“There is a spirit of positive cooperation” on the yuan issue between the U.S. and China, Hormats said. “I think it would be wrong to try to anticipate any specific action that will be taken or any specific date.”
“That kind of speculation doesn’t serve anyone’s interest and tends to be counterproductive,” he said.
--Michael Forsythe. Editors: Paul Panckhurst, Mike Millard.
April 11, 2010, 1:02 AM EDT
April 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Undersecretary of State Robert Hormats met China’s Vice President Xi Jinping on a tropical Chinese island amid speculation the country would move to revalue its currency.
Hormats, whose portfolio includes economic affairs, talked with Xi privately for about 20 minutes on April 9, the day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner met his Chinese counterpart, Vice Premier Wang Qishan, in Beijing. Hormats, in an interview today, would only say they discussed “the economic and political relationship between the two countries.”
The meetings with Xi and Wang and tomorrow’s arrival of President Hu Jintao in Washington to attend a nuclear security summit and meet President Barack Obama, are examples of the surge in diplomacy between the two countries amid calls by the U.S. for China to raise the value of the yuan, which has been pegged to about 6.83 to one U.S. dollar since July 2008. The New York Times on April 8 reported China is “very close” to announcing it will change its currency policy.
“There is a spirit of positive cooperation” on the yuan issue between the U.S. and China, Hormats said. “I think it would be wrong to try to anticipate any specific action that will be taken or any specific date.”
“That kind of speculation doesn’t serve anyone’s interest and tends to be counterproductive,” he said.
--Michael Forsythe. Editors: Paul Panckhurst, Mike Millard.