China Warns U.S. Not to Politicize Exchange Rates
China warned the United States on Wednesday not to "politicise" the exchange rate of its currency amid a festering trade war between the two economic giants.
The U.S. Treasury declined to label China a currency manipulator in its latest semi-annual report but also called on Beijing to prevent the yuan from weakening.
"We have always said here that we hope the U.S. side will respect objective facts, market rules and not politicise the exchange rate issue," said foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang.
While the Treasury report said "direct intervention by the People's Bank of China in the last year has been limited," the department also released a statement urging "China to take the necessary steps to avoid a persistently weak currency."
The report's conclusion "is in line with basic common sense," Lu told reporters during a regular news briefing.
"We have repeatedly advised the U.S. side to act in accordance with the relevant multilateral international rules and not to unilaterally assess other countries' exchange rates," he said.
Despite ratcheting trade tensions and punitive tariffs on half of its exports to the US, Chinese officials have repeatedly said they will not resort to competitive devaluation of the yuan to help Chinese exporters.
The onshore yuan on Wednesday traded at 6.91 to the dollar while it stood at 6.93 to the dollar offshore.
29 May 2019, 18:30
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It suddenly strikes me that once again it turns out to be the US which is doing the thing the US accuses others of doing. In this case, the strong dollar, which means the weak yuan, is a result of the constant saber-rattling by the US, not always or even at all by its President, which intimidates the world into using the dollar as the reserve currency in the face of Armageddon.
