China's Yuan Policy will be the Source of Much Discussion, but Little Change During President Hu's Visit

It's unlikely U.S. President Barack Obama will make much headway in his efforts to influence China's yuan policy when he meets with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Washington this week. President Hu made that abundantly clear on Sunday when he rejected U.S. arguments that allowing the yuan to appreciate against the dollar would help the government in Beijing tame inflation. In response to written questions from The Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post , Hu said he favors greater cooperation with the United States on economic issues but he called the present U.S. dollar-dominated currency system a " product of the past ," the newspapers reported on their Web sites. The Chinese president said his government is fighting inflation with a package of policies, including interest rate increases, and that rising prices can "hardly be the main factor in determining the exchange rate policy," according to a transcript of the answers.