President tells U.S. audience China will not lower renminbi exchange rate to boost exports
President Xi Jinping shared his views with U.S. local officials and businessmen on Tuesday on issues including China's stock market and the anti-corruption campaign. [Special coverage]
The president, who started a four-day state visit to the United States earlier in the day, was speaking at a welcoming dinner in Seattle hosted by the Washington state government and groups friendly to China.
Seattle is the first stop on the four-day state visit, which will also take Xi to Washington DC.
Referring to the stock market, which saw heavy turbulence in the summer, forcing the government to intervene, Xi said, "China's stock market has reached a phase of self-recovery and self-adjustment."
Xi also said the modest adjustment in August to the renminbi's reference rate against the U.S. dollar "achieved initial success in correcting the exchange rate deviation".
"Given the economic and financial situation at home and abroad, there is no basis for continuous depreciation of the renminbi," he said.
"We are against competitive depreciation or a currency war. We will not lower the renminbi exchange rate to boost exports."
Xi said China would remain committed to steady economic growth, reform, opening-up, rule of law, anti-corruption efforts and peaceful development.
He said the Chinese government would introduce strong and pragmatic reform plans in areas including the market, taxation, financing, investment, pricing and people's livelihoods.
Xi also told an audience that included chief executives from some of the largest U.S. businesses, such as Boeing, Amazon, DuPont, IBM and Microsoft, that China would treat U.S. investors fairly, including better protecting intellectual property rights and combating commercial cybertheft.
He promised that Beijing would not restrict - but protect - the activities of overseas NGOs in China according to the law "as long as the activities of these organizations benefit the Chinese people" and abide by local laws.
He also asked for close cooperation from the U.S. on sending back Chinese corruption suspects, to deny them safe havens overseas.
On Sino-U.S. relations, he called for the world's two largest economies to read each other's strategic intentions correctly and to manage their differences properly and effectively.
"Should they enter into conflict and confrontation, it would lead to disaster for both countries and the world," Xi said.
David Michael Lampton, director of China studies at the Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, told China Daily he believed that the Chinese economy is stable despite the turbulence in the stock market.
Su Ge, president of the China Institute of International Studies, said Xi had sent a clear message to the U.S. in his speech that there was no need for Washington to worry about whether Beijing intended to overturn the international order.
"It is of great political significance. Xi has directly called on both countries to read the intentions correctly and not allow the key relationship to be derailed by their differences."
