Monday, March 15, 2010

Chinese Effrontery, part II

We have an old saying, "the pot calling the kettle black". This English proverb simply means "when you accuse a person of doing something that you are guilty of doing yourself."  Perhaps there is no such similar Chinese proverb? I wonder this aloud because China's Premier is doing just that.

Premier Wen Jiabao delivered some incredibly ironic and tough talk for the U.S. on Sunday. We've discussed China's talk about the dollar and U.S. economic policy before in these virtual pages. Last time, China was very forward about criticizing U.S. policies that might possibly, someday, create bubbles while their own property and commodity markets were overheating. Similarly, the Chinese are denigrating their own actions again.

What exactly did he say? Well, read it for yourself:
"What I don't understand is the practice of depreciating one's own currency and attempting to press other countries to appreciate their own currencies solely for the purpose of increasing one's own exports"

Are you stunned yet? Just wait, there's more:
"This kind of practice I think is a kind of trade protectionism."

Let's try to sum this up: according to Wen, trade protectionism is bad and currency manipulation is bad. Apparently they are only bad when someone else does it though? China is the largest and most egregious perpetrator of both actions!

The pot calling the kettle black indeed.

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I've wondered this before, but it never fails to amaze me: how can leaders say such nonsense with a straight face?

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