Does Washington fear yuan's evolution?
By labeling China a "currency manipulator" following Washington's threat to impose 10 percent tariffs on another $300 billion of Chinese goods from Sept 1, the US Treasury Department has dealt another serious blow to bilateral ties.
The United States has labeled China a "currency manipulator" even before. But in the current context, it reflects the US' intolerance of the existing world order, and international trade and economic rules which are different from its own.
From a planned economy, where foreign exchange was tightly controlled, China began to open its foreign exchange market by experimenting with "swap centers". On Jan 1, 1994, the Chinese government removed the official peg of the yuan and allowed it to float freely, which reflected its market value as determined by a national average based on the different rates of the "swap centers" across the country.
