US Treasury report on China under fire

The US government drew fierce protest from politicians and industry after the Treasury Department again refused to brand China a currency manipulator in its twice-yearly report on global exchange rate policies. The report came out just after a top US delegation led by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson returned from talks in Beijing. Max Baucus, the incoming Democratic chairman of the Senate's powerful finance committee, promised to find a new approach to Sino-US economic frictions, arguing the semiannual Treasury reports had outlived their usefulness. Alan Tonelson, research fellow at the United States Business and Industry Council, said he was "thoroughly dismayed" at the Treasury finding.