Chinese and U.S. officials have been meeting in Washington for the past two days under the aegis of the annual forum of Strategic and Economic Dialogue (SED). All the news releases from these meetings sound so hopeful about increased cooperation between the world powers. The Chinese feed the U.S. policy makers with words of promise about the SINO economy becoming more market-oriented and the American delegation tells the Chinese that they will be fiscally responsible and do all they gain to maintain the value of U.S. paper assets that fill the vaults in Beijing. An hour after the Chinese head home, the financial media will no doubt be hungry for some more morsels of hope. So it goes and it will continue: Both sides pledging fidelity the vibrancy of the global economic order.
Posts Tagged ‘Wen Jiabo’
Notes From Underground: WEN in Rome
October 7, 2010Chinese Premier WEN Jiabao visited Italy after the EU/China summit that took place this week. Wen had been to Greece earlier as China is looking for assets in the battered peripheral economies of the EU. Are the Chinese sovereign wealth funds truly interested in European troubled assets or merely attempting to buy some good will so as to break up a possible unified action by the developed nations against the renminbi? The Chinese are in Italy and making some noise about buying Italian companies to ensure a place in the European economies.
Notes From Underground: Did Dudley DO RIGHT on his mounting a possible expansion of monetary easing?
October 4, 2010First things first. The Financial Times ran a weekend front-page story revealing that Sarkozy and the Chinese have been holding secret meetings for the last year on the issue of global currency stability. It was unclear what efforts Sarkozy was pursuing but he was looking to get Chinese support for whatever he is going to try to accomplish when he gets the leadership post of the G-20. The French have been trying to replace the U.S. DOLLAR as the world’s reserve currency since the days of DeGaulle and Jacques Rueff. We have warned that Sarkozy is desperate to make a grand play on the international stage as his political support in France has badly eroded. Wen Jiabao is in Europe this week for talks with the EU on many issues.
Notes From Underground: Wen to meet Obama Thursday; Zapatero gives the European debt crisis the boot
September 22, 2010As the United Nations convenes for its fall meetings, world leaders gather in New York, which creates the opportunity for traffic jams and face-to-face bilateral meetings for heads of state. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will take the time to discuss serious issues with President Obama–and, of course the trade issue will take center stage. Premier Wen will make his case that the Chinese trade surplus is not a question of currency value but rather economic structure. Wen will argue that the huge trade surplus will correct as the structure of China’s economy becomes more domestic demand driven. The Chinese believe that capitalist history is replete with trade surpluses as a part of any capitalist society’s development. The U.S. and Great Britain both ran massive surpluses as their economies transitioned from agrarian-based to industrialized nations.