They state:
Beijing on Wednesday asked Washington to assure the security of its financial assets in the country, as the United States is likely to further press China to revalue its currency during President Hu Jintao's visit there next week.
"Regarding the security of China's assets in the US, if the US side can offer a positive statement on that then of course we'd welcome that. It's an issue we're paying attention to," Vice-Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai said at a news briefing on Hu's visit.
The US government and politicians have pressed Beijing for years to allow the yuan to rise more rapidly to help US exports to China, a policy they claim would create more jobs.
The White House said President Barack Obama will press US complaints about what it terms China's currency controls that critics say keep the yuan undervalued and swell its multibillion-dollar trade surplus.
On Wednesday, US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pressed China again on the currency issue, saying it is one of the major concerns for the US during Hu's visit.
This is clearly posturing ahead of the meeting but is posturing in an attempt to get what they want and to put the US on the defensive, and possibly with some reason.
This should be an interesting state visit. Most likely nothing will occur of any merit but China is now exercising all of its power; military, economic, and otherwise. As we have been saying for the past few years, especially during this economic crisis, the US has been put in a weak position and the current administration has not really helped the problem with its spending. China wants to see just how far it can push and right now it holds most of the cards.
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