MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Beijing tells Washington that Yuan policy Taiwan and Tibet are in the same bag

President Hu Jintao is expected in Washington next week

Amid the currency row with the United States, China has indicated that it may adjust its financial policy to take care of Washington's concerns if the White House respects Beijing's “core interests” in Taiwan and Tibet.

“Beijing may adjust its policy of pegging its currency to the dollar provided President Hu Jintao's visit to Washington to attend the Nuclear Security Summit goes on smoothly,” Li Daokui, a top advisor to China's Central Bank said.

“As long as the US respected China's ”core interests“ the currency disagreement could be easily solved,” Li was quoted as saying by the London-based Financial Times daily.

Li, a professor at Tsinghua University and a member of China's central bank monetary policy committee, said: “As long as this is understood, everything else will be easy to handle and we will find the key to unlock the exchange rate problem”.

China protested vehemently to Washington following USD six billion arms sales to Taiwan and President Barack Obama's meeting with Dalai Lama, saying that the two issues were connected to its sovereignty.

Chinese President Hu Jintao called for “healthy and stable” relations with the US in a phone conversation with his American counterpart yesterday.

The Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement that Hu told Obama both sides should “respect each other's core interests and major concerns and properly handle differences and sensitive issues” and make “unremitting efforts towards cooperative, positive and comprehensive” ties.

Hu's emphasis that the “proper handling of Taiwan and Tibet” was the biggest factor in Sino-US ties in the contest of currency adjustment left analysts guessing.
There is growing calls by Congressmen that China be declared a currency manipulator.
However, the White House has said that no final decision on this issue has been taken by the administration, even as it emphasised that Beijing’s currency needs to be market-based.

Hu will attend a summit on nuclear security in Washington from April 12 to 13, just days before the US Treasury is scheduled to issue a report on whether China has been manipulating its exchange rate to boost exports.
Hu is expected to hold talks with his US counterpart both on the currency issue and the controversial sanctions on Iran.

China, which imports 11% of its oil and gas requirements from Iran apparently has diluted its stand on the UN sanctions following pressure from US other UN permanent security council members.