Chen Weihua

Political capital to the cost of the people

By Chen Weihua (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-07 07:58

However, the environment for Chinese investment in the US is unattractive, according to experts such as Orville Schell, director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society, and a number of deals have been blocked for so-called security reasons.

The shift of opinion in mainstream US newspapers shows that more people are now listening to experts, rather than the politicians who care more about putting on a show during an election year.

That said. It doesn't mean that there is nothing to improve in managing China's exchange rate regime. The country still has a long way to go toward making the currency convertible. But we should remember that everything achieved in China has been an evolutionary process.

Over the past three decades, China has made good progress in reforming the foreign exchange regime by learning from Western countries.

In his book Playing our game: Why China's rise doesn't threaten the West, MIT Associate Professor of Political Science Edward Steinfeld praised China's progress in every economic area compared to the situation decades ago.

Steinfeld, also director of the MIT-China Program, argues that China's economic rise is good for the US.

Unlike skeptics, who believe that the rise of China means the decline of the West, in particular the US, Steinfeld argues that China's development fortifies US commercial supremacy, because China has been working hard to learn and play by Western or US rules for the past three decades.

As a journalist who has witnessed China's great transformation first hand over the last 20 years, I find Steinfeld's analysis precise and insightful.

If politicians choose to care more about gaining political capital instead of listening to experts, then the ones who have to bear the cost of waging a losing battle are the peoples of the two countries.

Chenweihua@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/07/2010 page8)