Don't have yuan for the road

China's central bank will keep the yuan's exchange rate relatively stable this year and deepen coordination with other countries on major policy issues. China opposes politicizing monetary issues, central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said on Saturday in response to growing foreign pressure to ease the yuan's exchange rate because it is hampering trade and could be slowing down global recovery.

China's swift rebound from the global financial crisis has fueled growing foreign hostility. At the beginning of this year, Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times that China's exchange rate policy "drains much-needed demand away from a depressed world economy". He argues that other countries were being victimized by China's "mercantilist" economic strategy and could respond by adopting protectionist policies.

I admire Krugman, for he is one of the few sane and intelligent voices left in the American media. In fact, my day in office usually begins with a cup of coffee and his blog on the Times website. But many of the criticisms of China, including Krugman's, look rather different when seen from inside the country.