Washington told to avoid fiscal crisis
China urged Washington on Monday to take decisive steps to avoid a debt crisis and ensure the safety of Chinese investments, as a deadlocked US Congress confronted a looming deadline to increase the nation's borrowing power or risk default.
China, the US government's largest creditor, is "naturally concerned about developments in the US fiscal cliff", Zhu Guangyao, vice-finance minister, said in the Chinese government's first public response to the Oct 17 deadline in the United States for raising the debt ceiling.
"The US is totally clear about China's concerns about the fiscal cliff," Zhu told reporters in Beijing, adding that Washington and Beijing had been in touch over the issue.
"We ask that the US earnestly takes steps to resolve in a timely way before Oct 17 the political (issues) around the debt ceiling and prevent a US debt default to ensure safety of Chinese investments in the US and the global economic recovery," Zhu said.
"This is the United States' responsibility."
Reuters
(China Daily 10/08/2013 page11)
