China officials like yelping dogs: US senator

Sen. Sherrod Brown
© AFP/Getty Images/File Brendan Hoffman

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The top US Senate champion of legislation to punish China for its alleged currency manipulation compared officials in Beijing on Wednesday to a “pack of dogs” yelping in anger at the bill.

“Where I come from, they say when you throw a rock at a pack of dogs, the one that yelps is the one you hit,” Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown said in a speech on the Senate floor.

“Of course the Chinese are going to yelp because they don’t like this,” Brown said of the legislation, which envisions retaliatory duties on Chinese goods if the yuan is found to be unfairly “misaligned.”

Lawmakers of both major US parties charge that China keeps the yuan unfairly cheap against the dollar, giving its goods as much as a 30 percent edge over comparable US products.

The senator, who represents the rust-belt heartland state of Ohio, pointed to a chorus of condemnation from Beijing against the bill, and said “they’re not happy when we do this, but that doesn’t mean it’s not the right thing.”

China’s top newspaper the People’s Daily — seen as the Communist Party mouthpiece — its foreign ministry, its central bank and the Xinhua official news agency have denounced the legislation.

“Of course in the Communist Party in the People’s Republic of China, of course the ministry of commerce is going to squawk, of course the ministry of foreign affairs is going to squawk, of course the people’s bank of China is gong to squawk,” said Brown.

“We’re saying to them you’ve got to follow the rules, no more breaking the rules. You can’t cheat the way you’ve cheated,” he said.

The measure was expected to clear the Senate as early as Thursday but faced an uphill fight in the House of Representatives, whose Republican leaders say they have no plan to bring it up for a vote.