China's new role discussed

BEIJING, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- As Chinese media praise President Hu Jintao's U.S. visit as historic, a China Daily item Tuesday said the country has no ambition for domination over others.

The article, attributed to the president of the China Society of World Economics, said three decades of China's "breakneck growth" raises the question of what role the country will play in the world "amid its seemingly unstoppable growth?"

The report said China has basically remained an inward-looking country and, despite its "occasional outbursts of anger," the country "harbors no ambition to become a hegemonic power."

It said China "needs to learn how to be more relaxed in global affairs," but also cited former U.S. National Security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski in noting Western countries "should be coming to terms with China."

The Chinese official media have continued massive coverage of Hu's U.S. visit to stress China's rising status as a major world power. The China Daily report noted rising inflation and excess liquidity and warned China must be willing to make short-term sacrifices -- such as asset price adjustments or a temporary drop in employment in some sectors -- to guarantee the long-term stability of its economy, leveraging its strong fiscal position of 19 percent debt to GDP.

The article said U.S. attempts to blame China's undervalued currency for U.S. economic problems are without merit but a "stronger yuan is not only beneficial to the U.S., but also in the interest of China, because Beijing needs to promote structural adjustment and contain spillover inflation."

Asserting that China has assured nothing will be done to destabilize the sovereign bond markets, the article said "we expect the likes of the U.S. and the Eurozone to act responsibly toward their creditors."