China maintained its hard-line stand against revaluing the Yuan amidst longstanding pressures from the US and Europe and instead pointed fingers on the soaring American debt levels, which Beijing described as possible source of more and graver economic concerns.

In a media briefing on the upcoming US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue set for Monday and Tuesday next week in Beijing, Assistant Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao reaffirmed his government's policy that they "will not succumb to external pressure as pressure and noise from the outside can only obstruct our progress."

However, he told reporters covering the briefing, that China is ready to discuss its exchange rate policy once the dialogue gets underway as both Europe and the US has been campaigning for Beijing to shift its currency policy to a more market-based exchange rate regimen and allow the Yuan to reach its normal or actual value.

US State Secretary Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are set to lead the American delegation on the annual bilateral talks and are expected to echo calls from many US legislators to take action against Beijing's apparent manipulation of its currency in order to flood the world market with its cheaper export products.

The US Congress is also encouraging US President Barack Obama to deal with the Chinese currency issue though many observers were predicting that China at this time would not backpedal on its currency stand especially now that more economic uncertainties are being introduced by the eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

As if reaffirming the already gloomy sentiments, Mr Zhu said that China is currently more concerned with the amount of debt being absorbed by the United States even as he reiterated that "the exchange rate stability is an important factor in the global response to the EU crisis."

China has been airing concerns that its portfolio of US Treasuries could be left exposed by a runaway US borrowings, while seemingly putting aside the issues hounding its currency policy, as it gave assurance that "the Yuan would be on the agenda for next week's Sino-US talks but it was just one of many issues to be discussed."

One of China's major newspapers, The China Daily, has reported that Beijing is not bent to prioritise the Yuan issue as it quoted Li Daokui, a member of China's central bank monetary policy committee, as saying that, "Officials from both sides are expected to play down the currency issue during the meeting, leaving more leeway for China to decide the fate of its own currency."