Yuan | featured news

China loosens its currency controls in a move that may spur gains in the value of the yuan. From Monday, the yuan can fluctuate up to 1% in trading against the US dollar from a fixed price set by the central bank, the People's Bank of China said.

The Senate on Tuesday approved a bill aimed at pushing China to let its yuan currency rise in value in the hope of saving American jobs, sending it to the House of Representatives where its fate is uncertain.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chinese President Hu Jintao urged an end to a "zero sum" Cold War relationship with the United States and proposed new cooperation, but resisted U.S. arguments about why China should let its currency strengthen.

China's yuan currency remains "substantially undervalued" and it is in Beijing's own interest to let it appreciate more rapidly to ward off inflation risks, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Wednesday.

Concluding that China has little intention of working with the United States on issues like currency, trade and security, the administration is building coalitions to confront China.

The Senate is unlikely to take up pending China currency legislation following a weekend promise by the Group of 20 economic powers to shun currency devaluations for trade advantage, analysts said on Sunday.

China's undervalued yuan is triggering an international currency war that risks undermining the global economic recovery, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner faces a lonely campaign to make China's currency a major issue at the next Group of 20 summit as would-be allies shrink from confronting Beijing.

U.S. industry and senior Democrats ratcheted up pressure on Congress on Wednesday for a tough new trade law to punish China for what they see as an undervalued currency that threatens American jobs and profits.

The announcement, which you can read in English here, means the end of nearly two years of fixing the Chinese currency to the U.S. dollar, a move that most economists, including many in China, believe is on balance good for both the world and China in the long run. It will make China the most popular attendee at next week's meeting of the G-20 nations in Canada, and it will please traders who have been betting China will allow the yuan to appreciate.