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US, China to hold economy meeting in May

China could loosen Taiwan banking restrictions: report
Taipei (AFP) April 24, 2011 - China could allow its banks to widen access to Taiwanese lenders and remove current restrictions on branches opened on the mainland, Beijing's banking regulation chief told local media on Sunday.

Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, extended the olive branch upon his arrival Saturday, according to the Taipei-based Commercial Times.

Liu and his Taiwanese counterpart Chen Yu-chang will hold talks in Taipei Monday in the first meeting since Taipei and Beijing set up a banking supervisory cooperation platform in January.

According to Liu, under the pending new measures, Taiwanese lenders will be allowed to start doing renminbi business once they have opened branches on the mainland, the Times said.

Existing measures require Taiwan lenders to open branches for a minimum of a year and become profitable before they are permitted to do renminbi business.

Taiwan and its giant neighbour in 2009 signed a package of agreements on better cooperation in banking, insurance and securities, which went into effect in January last year.

The agreements are eventually expected to make it easier for Taiwanese and Chinese banks to buy each other's assets and to make it possible for Chinese investors to buy shares on the Taiwanese stock market.

Six Taiwanese banks have set up branches in China and two others have opened up liaison offices there while four Chinese lenders have liaison offices in Taiwan.

China still considers Taiwan part of its territory, even though the island has governed itself since 1949 at the end of a civil war.

Ties between the two sides have improved markedly since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power in 2008.

by Staff Writers
Washington (AFP) April 25, 2011
Top officials from the United States and China will meet in Washington early next month, the Treasury Department said Monday, as tensions between the two economic superpowers simmer.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will host Chinese Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo, amid continued tensions over debt, exports and the value of China's currency.

The Treasury Department has delayed the publication of a report that could lead to sanctions against Beijing until after the meeting, despite US lawmakers complaining that China is still manipulating its currency for trade advantage.

The semi-annual report, which was due on April 15, has become a focal point for critics who accuse Beijing of unfairly keeping the yuan weak against the dollar to boost Chinese exports.

The US government said it would wait until a meeting of the Group of 20 finance chiefs, the IMF's annual spring meetings and the bilateral meeting on May 9 and 10 before publishing the document.

The yuan has strengthened almost five percent against the dollar in the last year, amid fierce political pressure from Washington. But experts say it still remains undervalued.

With China the largest foreign holder of US bonds, the two sides are also likely to discuss the outlook for US debt.

China urged the United States last Tuesday to adopt "responsible measures" after ratings agency Standard & Poor's cut the outlook on US sovereign debt to negative.

S&P sent stocks plunging worldwide when it slashed its outlook from "stable" to "negative" Monday, pointing to doubts about Washington's ability to tackle looming debt and fiscal deficits -- concerns raised by Beijing in the past.

"US Treasury bonds are a reflection of US government credit and are important investment products for domestic and international institutional investors," foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement.

"We hope the US government will earnestly adopt responsible policy measures to guarantee the interests of investors," he added.



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