Talking About the Real China

[Geee]

American Spectator:

In a recent column Yang Yao, the esteemed director of the China Center for Economic Research at Peking University, explained China's economic reasoning as "moving in a statist direction." It was as if the past sixty years had not existed. Were we to believe that the PRC has not been a nation of political, economic and social totalitarianism all this while?

It was a beautiful argument built on statistical discovery and contemporary academic obfuscation. The need for not allowing the renminbi to float freely in the international market is all justified as necessary government actions based on Beijing's commitment to "ensure strong employment and social stability." Ah, yes, and the non-convertibility of the ruble during Stalin's time in the USSR was to protect against Western exploitation. That explanation was as specious then as the contemporary Beijing version is now.

The truth is that the PRC is fighting tooth and nail to maintain its currency advantage in international trading operations. The growth of Chinese overseas investment in basic commodity production to fuel its own industrial growth is possible in great part by the West's inability to crack the financial stranglehold China has on the valuation of its national currency.