The words this time came from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton rather than US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner who has spent a good many months railing against the Chinese for their inability to revalue their currency.
Speaking at the 21-country Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Hawaii she reiterated the increasing emphasis of the Asia-Pacific region saying: “It is becoming increasingly clear that in the 21st century, the world’s strategic and economic centre of gravity will be the Asia-Pacific, from the Indian subcontinent to western shores of the Americas.”
Speaking of the need for China and the US to work together, she then went on to add the Chinese authorities should allow its currency to appreciate and end measures that disadvantage foreign investors.
In the build-up to the summit, Geithner called for Asia-Pacific countries to up their efforts to stimulate global economic growth; he urged Europe to put together a “strong plan” to sort out its sovereign debt problems; while adding: “As the US continues to work through the problems that caused our crisis…”
Mark Mardell, the BBC’s North America editor, said: “There is a sense in the US that they are howling into the storm, urgently shouting advice while the immediate victims blithely and calmly do too little to escape the catastrophe that is about to overtake them.”
