Chinese, Enjoying New Clout, Chide US on Fiscal Policy

As the US economy struggles and its own booms, China is reveling in its newfound self-confidence, blasting American fiscal policy, the New York Times reports, and flaunting its own regulatory successes. Chinese officials have recently taken the US to task over the subprime mortgage crisis, the weakening dollar, and “discriminatory” attitudes toward foreign investment, showing unusual bravado in the run-up to today’s economic talks between the countries.

The US will air its own grievances at the meeting, attended by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other cabinet members. American officials will complain that China regulates its market to boost its own companies over foreign ones, and will push China to enforce copyright laws and improve food and drug safety. But it may be hard for the US to make its case when, as one economist puts it, “US credibility and the credibility of US financial markets is zero everywhere in the world.”  (More China stories.)