Hu, Obama Exchange Barbs at APEC Over Yuan, Unfair Trade

U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao exchanged barbs during a closed door meeting at the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference in Hawaii on Saturday.

Revealing excerpts of their talks, the White House said Monday that Obama told Hu that China should "do more to allow its currency to appreciate, create a level playing field on trade and prevent theft of US intellectual property," according to Reuters.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Mike Froman, U.S. deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs, also quoted Obama as telling Hu "that the American people and the American business community were growing increasingly impatient and frustrated with the state of change in China's economic policy."

Hu defended his country against accusations by the U.S. that it is keeping the yuan undervalued to benefit its exporters.
China's state-owned news agency, Xinhua, reported that the foreign ministry quoted Hu as replying to Obama, "The trade deficit and unemployment problems are not caused by the yuan exchange rate. Even a major appreciation of the yuan would not resolve the problems facing the United States."

At the closing news conference of the APEC meeting on Sunday, Obama said the U.S. has had enough of China and demanded it stop playing around "the international economic system and create a level playing field for US and other foreign businesses."

"We're going to continue to be firm that China operate by the same rules as everyone else. We don't want them taking advantage of the United States," he said, according to the Daily Examiner.

Obama threatened punitive economic steps against China if it does not play by the rules.

"Where we see rules being broken, we'll speak out and in some cases we'll take action," he said, according to Reuters.
Hu and Obama also revealed clashing trade policies of the world's two biggest economies in separate speeches during the APEC leaders' summit.

Hu said China is wary of open trade with the U.S. or joining trade agreements involving the U.S., referring to the Trans-Pacific Partnership among Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

Hu said China prefers open trade through the World Trade Organization. He also said that emerging markets and developing countries should have more say in global economic governance.