President Barack Obama on Monday pushed President Hu Jintao of China to allow the renminbi to appreciate and to back sanctions on Iran, as new figures showed that China’s foreign exchange reserves are growing at a slower rate than before.

After an hour-and-a-half-long meeting on the sidelines of the nuclear security summit Mr Obama is hosting, the two sides emphasised their increasing co-operation after a period when Washington and Beijing appeared to be at loggerheads.

Read more >> | FT.com / China / Economy & Trade – Obama urges China’s leader on currency.

The message was delivered to the world in impeccable English by the fresh-faced Zhang Lu, who was translating the words of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao at his annual press conference.

After managing flawlessly to translate: “For the ideal that I hold dear to my heart, I would not regret a thousand times to die” and “My conscience stays unstained in spite of rumours and slanders from the outside”, interpreting his more important words on the Chinese currency was relatively straight forward, and the message was crystal clear.

“First of all, I do not think the renminbi (yuan) is undervalued,” he said. “We are opposed to countries pointing fingers at each other or taking strong measures to force other countries to appreciate their currencies. To do this is not beneficial to reform of the renminbi exchange-rate regime.”

The value of the renminbi looks set this year to dominate relations between the world’s largest economy and its third-largest. The first is a nation struggling to revive its waning economic might while the other has a cautious eye on superpower status and is showing an increasing assertiveness in its dealings on the world stage.

Read more >> |  World Agenda: ‘undervalued’ yuan causes an impasse in Sino-US relations – Times Online.

China is exploring the possibility of extending its high-speed train network as far as Europe, potentially cutting rail travel time between London and Beijing to as little as two days.

Officials hope to see the project completed over the next ten years, enabling passengers to travel the roughly 8,000 kilometre journey at speeds of up to 320 kilometres per hour.

Two lines to Europe are reportedly being considered under the proposals, one passing through India, Pakistan, and the Middle East, while a second would head to Germany via Russia. Exact routes are currently undecided however. A third line would extend south from China to connect Vietnam, Thailand, Burma and Malaysia.

Read more >> | EUobserver / China exploring rail routes to Europe.

The idea of a G2 formed by the US and China suddenly seems far less plausible.

Remember the G2? The US’s financial difficulties and foreign entanglements, together with China’s economic ascent, led many last year to envisage the emergence of a sort of global condominium between the two countries. The G8 had morphed by necessity into the G20, which, whenever it really mattered, would shed its zero: the United States and China would call the shots.

By Chris Patten

Read more >> | Is China overplaying its hand?  | Policies  |  Foreign affairs  |  Asia | European Voice.

hina today inflamed the international row with America over cyber-attacks on Google, denouncing Hillary Clinton’s criticism of the country’s internet curbs as “information imperialism”.

The Global Times, an English-language newspaper published by the state, said today that information from the West comes “loaded with aggressive rhetoric against those countries that do not follow their lead”.

“Unlike advanced Western countries, Chinese society is still vulnerable to the effect of multifarious information flowing in, especially when it is for creating disorder,” it said.

Read more >> | The Times Online

See also >> | Remarks on Internet Freedom – Hillary Rodham Clinton
See also >> | Google’s challenge to China: the reaction – The Guardian – Videoreactions from Chinese bloggers
See also >> | James Fallows – A momentous 40 hours, leading to Clinton/China/Internet – More on Hillary’s speech in The Atlantic

he US today threw down the gauntlet to China over its internet censorship of its citizens in a hard-hitting speech by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

She urged China to investigate cyber attacks that led Google to threaten to pull out of the country – and challenged Beijing to publish its findings.

“Countries that restrict free access to information or violate the basic rights of internet users risk walling themselves off from the progress of the next century,” she said, adding that the US and China “have different views on this issue, and we intend to address those differences candidly and consistently”.

Read more >> | The Times Online

See also >> | Update on Google/China-ology

.S. intelligence officials have concluded that December’s mass cyber attack against 33 American companies was most likely the result of a coordinated espionage campaign endorsed by the Chinese government.

Google’s revelation that they’d been hit was deemed a “watershed” moment by security industry analysts, but the other 32 companies who were hit have not followed suit and have begged the government to keep their identities a secret. The government has no choice but to protect their identities — even as U.S. policy encourages greater transparency about the scope of such attacks.

Read more >> | The Atlantic

wo belated points about the still-unfolding Google/China saga, and then one reader message.

Point one: “soft power” – or lack thereof. In the immediate aftermath of Google’s decision, there was assorted mild carping from Western observers about what Google’s motivation “really” was. Were they escaping a bad business situation? (no), were they just trying to score PR points in the rest of the world? (not really), was there some other motivation apart from the stated one of exasperation at dealing with the intrusions and harassments inside China?

By James Fallows

Read more >> | Update on Google/China-ology

fter Google announced it would quit China unless the nation’s censors eased their grip, the government on Thursday offered an indirect but unambiguous response: Companies that do business in China must follow the laws of the land.

Read more >> | The New York Times

ince the Copenhagen climate summit’s failure, many politicians and pundits have pointed the finger at China’s leaders for blocking a binding, global carbon-mitigation treaty. But the Chinese government’s resistance was both understandable and inevitable. Rather than mustering indignation, decision-makers would do well to use this as a wake-up call: it is time to consider a smarter climate policy.

China is unwilling to do anything that might curtail the economic growth that has enabled millions of Chinese to clamber out of poverty. This development can be seen in the ever-expanding Chinese domestic market.

By Bjørn Lomborg

Read more >> | Project Syndicate – Two Cheers for China’s Climate Obstruction

t’s the season when pundits traditionally make predictions about the year ahead. Mine concerns international economics: I predict that 2010 will be the year of China. And not in a good way.

Actually, the biggest problems with China involve climate change. But today I want to focus on currency policy.
(…)
The bottom line is that Chinese mercantilism is a growing problem, and the victims of that mercantilism have little to lose from a trade confrontation. So I’d urge China’s government to reconsider its stubbornness. Otherwise, the very mild protectionism it’s currently complaining about will be the start of something much bigger.

Paul Krugman

Read more | The New York Times Paul Krugman

hina is preparing to build three times as many nuclear power plants in the coming decade as the rest of the world combined, a breakneck pace with the potential to help slow global warming.

China’s civilian nuclear power industry — with 11 reactors operating and construction starting on as many as an additional 10 each year — is not known to have had a serious accident in 15 years of large-scale electricity production.

And with China already the largest emitter of gases blamed for global warming, the expansion of nuclear power would at least slow the increase in emissions.

Read on | The New York Times

hinese climate official blames the US, EU and Japan for too low ambitions on emissions cuts.

The United States and the European Union (EU) are expected by the Chinese delegation to bring more notable emission reductions targets to the Copenhagen climate talks.

At a press conference Tuesday, the Deputy Head of the Chinese delegation, Su Wei, said neither the US, the EU, nor Japan had offered sufficient cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

According to Su Wei, the US target on emissions reduction and the US financial support to developing nations are key to the success of the ongoing climate change conference.

Su Wei rejected an EU proposal that the economically advanced developing nations commit to emissions reductions and pay part of the public financing of adaptation and mitigation to climate change in the developing countries.

Read on | COP15 Copenhagen