December 13, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 2, 1428

XIANGHE (China), Dec 12: China told the United States on Wednesday to fix its own economic problems rather than deliver lectures, as the two sides warned at top-level talks here that protectionism threatened their trade ties.

The United States came to the two days of talks on the outskirts of Beijing with a long list of complaints about China’s economic and trade practices, with the value of the Chinese currency, the yuan, chief among its concerns.

But China’s vice minister of commerce, Chen Deming, said a weakening US dollar was a bigger global economic concern than the value of the yuan.

“(The yuan) is not the key issue. Currently my focus is more on the depreciation of the US dollar and its possible impact and repercussions for the world economy,” Chen told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.

“I sincerely wish to see a scenario where the US economy is getting stronger and the US dollar is getting stronger.” In her opening remarks to the third Sino-US Strategic Economic Dialogue, the head of China’s delegation, Vice Premier Wu Yi, also told the United States bluntly to fix its own problems rather than complain about China.

“Obviously, to resort to trade protectionism and blame another country for the structural problems in the US economy is the wrong approach which would only harm the interest of the United States itself,” Wu said.—AFP