From Timsonline:
High-powered US overtures to China to hasten its pace of financial reform were swiftly rebuffed yesterday as Beijing said that America had failed to understand the realities facing the world’s fourth-largest economy.
As two days of talks in Beijing between the US and China aimed at easing strained economic relations between the two powers began, Henry Paulson, US Treasury Secretary, wasted little time in urging China to move more swiftly towards a more flexible currency and more open markets.
“We will consider ways to achieve balanced economic growth and talk about the importance of currency flexibility in the short term and a path to a freely tradeable currency in the medium term,” Mr Paulson said after flying into the Chinese capital with other US Cabinet members and Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve.[Full Text]