Thursday, November 19, 2009

Chinese Effrontery

Monday's WSJ brought a front page article that made me LOL at the hypocrisy. The sub-headline was all it took. The article in question is "China's Blunt Talk for Obama" and the humorous sub-headline "Regulator Says U.S. Policy Puts Global Recovery At Risk as President Arrives in Beijing". What specifically is so funny? Let me quote:
"Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said that a weak U.S. dollar and low U.S. interest rates had led to "massive speculation" that was inflating asset bubbles around the world."

Wow. Really? I suppose what really amazes me is that anyone can speak such hypocrisy with a straight face. Just today, a Bloomberg article, discussed what the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (better known as the "OECD") had to say about China itself:
"Credit conditions may need to be tightened to prevent the emergence of inflationary pressures and asset bubbles." - OECD

The truth is so powerful, I won't even bother adding my usual emphasis to the quotes below. Quoting from the Bloomberg article:
"China is among the emerging markets facing risks of property and commodity market bubbles, central bank adviser Fan Gang said yesterday, joining officials from the region in expressing concern about surging asset prices.

Asian economies from Hong Kong to Singapore are fighting rising property values, which threaten to mimic the U.S. mortgage bubble that roiled the world economy."

Also:
"Rising residential prices are “abnormal,” Dong Zuoji, director of land planning at China’s land ministry, said last week."

And:
"China’s decision to fix its yuan to the dollar since July 2008 may increase inflationary pressures" the OECD said.

Yet, as President Obama visits China, the Chinese ignore all these facts and proclaim that the U.S. response to the crisis is the problem despite its own actions including a $586 billion (that's dollars) stimulus program and a $1.3 trillion (again dollars!) credit program. Now, if that ain't propaganda, I don't know what is.

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