China's Foreign Ministry on
Wednesday said the yuan's exchange rate was not the reason for unbalanced trade
ties with the United States, after Republican presidential candidate Donald
Trump said he would label Beijing a currency manipulator.
Trump, the presumptive
Republican nominee, has called China the "grand master" of currency
devaluation, and has appealed to voters with tough talk on unfair trade deals,
which he says cost American jobs.
In a Tuesday speech on his
trade policy stances, Trump said that if elected, he would direct his treasury
secretary to label China a currency manipulator, a move he said "should
have been done years ago".
Beijing has committed to
continue "market-oriented exchange rate reform" of the yuan. Chinese
officials have also said Trump's trade policies are irrational.
"China-U.S. trade
cooperation is the ballast and propeller of bilateral relations. Its essence is
mutual benefit. The yuan exchange rate is not the reason for unbalanced
China-U.S. trade," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement
on its website responding to Trump's comments.
"We hope some
individuals on the U.S. side can objectively view China-U.S. trade relations,
do more to benefit mutual trust and cooperation, and jointly safeguard the
healthy and stable development of China-U.S. trade relations," Hong said.
The United States' goods and
services trade deficit with China was $336.2 billion in 2015, according to the
U.S. Trade Representative's office.
The yuan is currently
hovering near a 5-1/2-year low against the dollar. The U.S. government has
warned China that any reversion to its past exchange rate policy of keeping the
yuan artificially low would trigger new U.S.-China tensions.
Chinese officials have
generally avoided criticizing Trump directly, though they have made indirect
criticism of his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States and of
his claims that China is stealing U.S. jobs.
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