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Treasury's Paulson: Open China to Foreign Competition
China should open its financial markets wider to foreign competition, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday, adding that such moves would help the Chinese economy as well as average Chinese families.
"One of the most important, fundamental things this country could do is to develop very strong capital markets. And the right way to do that is to open up to competition," Paulson told a student audience at elite Tsinghua University.
Paulson said allowing a bigger foreign presence in its financial industries would make China's economy healthier and improve investment returns for Chinese families.
The secretary was speaking a day after Washington and Beijing announced the launch of a series of regular high-level meetings to discuss major economic issues. Paulson's visit comes amid pressure by Washington for Beijing to rein in soaring trade surpluses and raise the value of its currency, which critics say is intentionally undervalued. Two key American senators are pushing for a vote on legislation to impose punitive tariffs on Chinese goods to pressure Beijing for action on the currency.
Story Continues Below But Paulson's comments this week have been conciliatory, stressing the potential benefits to China of opening wider to the world economy. He has tried to downplay expectations of any breakthroughs, saying Wednesday he anticipated only a "first set of discussions" aimed at forging new exchanges on economic issues.
The former Goldman Sachs chairman, who has amassed a wide array of business and official contacts in dozens of visits to China over the past 15 years, has been given unusually high-level official hospitality in Beijing. On Friday, he is due to meet President Hu Jintao - a courtesy granted to few foreign Cabinet officials.
Paulson met Thursday with Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, who marveled at his travel record in China.
"I think you have a good understanding of Sino-U.S. relations," Bo said. Also Thursday, Paulson was given a VIP tour of the construction site of facilities for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"This is truly spectacular," he said, standing beside the newly completed skeleton of the futuristic swimming center. "I look forward to being back here for the Olympics in 2008."
The strategic economic dialogue announced Wednesday is to include meetings twice a year between Paulson and Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi. The two governments said the exchanges would deal with long-range and big-picture issues that affect both countries.
The announcement didn't say whether the dialogue would take up the trade gap and currency disputes. But a U.S. Treasury Department statement said Washington would continue to press Beijing over those issues.
Following lobbying by the U.S. and other countries, Beijing revalued the yuan by a slight 2.1 percent against the dollar 14 months ago but has allowed the currency to rise in value only another 2.2 percent since then, even as the dollar has sunk against most major currencies.
On Thursday morning, the yuan hit a new high against the U.S. dollar for the sixth straight day.
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