BEIJING - A procedural vote by the US Senate Monday to debate a controversial currency exchange rate reform bill that aims to identify a scapegoat for the US economic problems has met strong opposition from China and business groups because it would produce nothing good.

The Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act aims to identify ?"currency manipulators" and empower US companies to slap retaliatory tariffs on goods imported from countries whose currencies they deem "undervalued."

Statistics show that the exchange rate of the Chinese currency RMB is not the cause of either the Sino-US trade imbalance or the high unemployment rate in the United States.

The RMB has appreciated 7 percent against the US dollar since June 2010, when the central bank announced further yuan exchange rate formation mechanisms, however, the US trade deficit with China is still going up.

Although the RMB, or yuan, has appreciated against the dollar over 25 percent since 2005, the US unemployment rate has nevertheless risen from about 7 percent to over 9 percent.

The bill risks further escalating the exchange rate issue by adopting protectionist measures with an excuse of a currency imbalance and high unemployment rate in the United States.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said such a move by the United States seriously violates rules of the World Trade Organization and obstructs China-US trade ties.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce also voiced strong opposition to the vote saying that it is unfair to use a controversial bill on so-called "currency manipulation" by China to transfer the US internal contradictions.

The RMB exchange rate will not help address the economic problems in the United States, neither will the rise of the RMB solve the high unemployment. The vote is a far cry from the real solutions to these issues and leads to no positive outcomes.