Posts tagged ‘Zhou Xiaochuan’

20/10/2013

China’s State Press Calls for ‘Building a de-Americanized World’ – Businessweek

“It is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanized world.” As nations around the world fret over the U.S. budget impasse, that is the conclusion of a not-so-subtle commentary published by China’s official Xinhua News Agency on Oct. 14.

Key among its proposals: the creation of a new international reserve currency to replace the present reliance on U.S. dollars, a necessary step to prevent American bumbling from further afflicting the world, the commentary suggests.

“The cyclical stagnation in Washington for a viable bipartisan solution over a federal budget and an approval for raising the debt ceiling has again left many nations’ tremendous dollar assets in jeopardy and the international community highly agonized,” says Xinhua. “The world is still crawling its way out of an economic disaster thanks to the voracious Wall Street elites,” it adds.

It’s not a new refrain: Back in March 2009, China’s central bank governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, also called for the creation of a new reserve currency, albeit in less heated language. The world needs a new “super-sovereign reserve currency” to replace the current reliance on the dollar, Zhou wrote in a paper published on the People’s Bank of China’s website (Zhou still heads the bank). The goal, he wrote, is to “create an international reserve currency that is disconnected from individual nations and is able to remain stable in the long run.”

Toppling the dollar isn’t enough today, however: “Several cornerstones should be laid to underpin a de-Americanized world,” explains the Xinhua piece. Along with a greater role for developing-market economies in both the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, “the authority of the United Nations in handling global hot-spot issues has to be recognized. That means no one has the right to wage any form of military action against others without a UN mandate” (all quite reasonable propositions, it must be said).

“A self-serving Washington has abused its superpower status and introduced even more chaos into the world by shifting financial risks overseas, instigating regional tensions amid territorial disputes, and fighting unwarranted wars under the cover of outright lies,” the commentary continues.

“Such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated, and a new world order should be put in place, according to which all nations, big or small, poor or rich, can have their key interests respected and protected on an equal footing.”

via China’s State Press Calls for ‘Building a de-Americanized World’ – Businessweek.

19/03/2013

* China heads back to the ’90s in economic reform drive

Reuters: “China is poised to launch its most serious economic reform drive since the 1990s after a series of top appointments at the weekend put the architects of Zhu Rongji‘s clash with state owned enterprises in charge of key economic agencies.

China's Vice Premier Ma Kai attends the sixth plenary meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing in this March 16, 2013 file photo. China is poised to launch its most serious economic reform drive since the 1990s after a series of top appointments at the weekend put the architects of Zhu Rongji's clash with state owned enterprises in charge of key economic agencies. Picture taken March 16, 2013. REUTERS-Jason Lee-Files

Vice Premier Ma Kai, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei and central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan were all Zhu lieutenants at the State Commission for Restructuring the Economy, which drew up the blueprint to sever the army’s ties with business and make millions jobless as state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were reformed.

They headline a clutch of officials in Premier Li Keqiang’s new line-up, who are broadly considered pro-business economic reformers able to finish the work started by arch-reformer Zhu when he was premier in a way that meets the different economic conditions of today.

“China is about to bring on the structural reforms that will ultimately reduce the old SOEs to ashes,” Paul Markowski, President of New York-based MES Advisers and a long-time adviser to China’s financial authorities, told Reuters.

“This is changing the economic policy team in a way that would be akin to bringing back the Clinton economic team to run President Obama’s economic initiatives,” said Markowski, who met with senior officials – including those at the central bank and the powerful planning agency the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) – during China’s annual parliamentary meeting this month.

Zhu was credited with getting China into the World Trade Organisation in a move that required shutting thousands of inefficient businesses and ultimately set the nation’s exporters on course to become the world’s most prolific, driving the economy to No.2 spot behind the United States in the process.

The pace of reform hasn’t been matched since, allowing SOEs to expand their share of economic activity and retain their preferred borrower status at the nation’s banks, which critics say starves the private sector of capital and chokes innovation.

The need for an energetic push on economic reform is acute, not least because easier reforms have been done and China’s economy, now more than five times the size it was when Zhu left the stage, will respond in more muted fashion.”

via Analysis: China heads back to the ’90s in economic reform drive | Reuters.

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