US Fed chief to visit China in December

US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will visit China in December with Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson and other cabinet officials for the opening round of the "strategic economic dialogue" announced in September, Reuters reported. The agenda for the visit is pushing China into allowing its currency to appreciate further, reducing foreign investment barriers and cracking down on intellectual property theft. Bernanke's role is unclear although he is expected to meet his Chinese counterpart Zhou Xiaochuan, just as former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan did in 2005, when accompanying then-Treasury Secretary John Snow to trade talks in Beijing. Bernanke has said in the past that it is in China's interests to pursue more balanced trade due to the problems encountered in managing US$1 trillion in foreign currency reserves.