CAMBRIDGE, England -- The Americans are at it again. Unable to get their own economic house in order, they have sent a team to Beijing to try to force China to revalue the yuan.
In 1997 the United States put a lot of pressure on China not to do the opposite -- not to devalue while all other Asian currencies were devaluing as fast as they could. China went along that time, at considerable cost to its economy. At the time, it was seeking better relations with the U.S. Not this time.
China is emerging as a world leader that the U.S. must deal with, not dictate to. China would do well to ignore the U.S. this time; revaluation would be as bad an idea this time as not devaluing was last time.