by Xinhua Writer Fu Yunwei

    BEIJING, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Group of Seven rich nations have again pushed developing China to appreciate its currency, the RMB yuan, so as to promote a so-called "more balanced growth".

    On Saturday, G7 central bankers' meeting held in Turkey's Istanbul failed to produce any significant boost to the world economy. Instead, they turned fire on China's currency, blaming itfor the financial crisis.

    In so doing, the rich nations have obviously intended to shirk their due responsibilities in the wide-spreading global financial turmoil.

    As it is known to all that the current crisis has been a result of developed countries' lax financial regulation, excessive consumption and their lasting monopoly on the international financial system.

    They are supposed to review loopholes in their micro-economic policies and financial regulation. However, some of them have tried to link the "under-evaluated" RMB exchange rate to the "global economic imbalance", which they said had been the major factor behind the crisis.

    According to their logic, China should appreciate the yuan considerably to cut exports and increase imports, so that Western nations' trade deficit can be narrowed and "a trade balance" be achieved.

    They have turned a blind eye to China's efforts to make the yuan more flexible.

    In July 2005, China unpegged the yuan from the U.S. dollar and allowed it to fluctuate against a basket of currencies. Since then, the yuan has gained over 20 percent before stabilizing against the dollar in the middle of last year.

    A phased and gradual reform on the RMB has fallen within market expectations. Many market analysts believed China has fully taken into account its own conditions when mapping out reforms on the yuan, and such an approach has contributed to international financial stabilization.

    In fact, the trade deficit in some Western nations has been a natural result of the current world economic pattern.

    For the past two decades, the developed countries have transferred their low value-added manufacturing industries to the developing nations including China, which helped the developing world build a trade surplus.

    Moreover, the trade barriers they have imposed on their high-tech products have also contributed to a slow import growth in the developing countries.

    With economies on different development levels, both China and the west are facing their own structural problems. The Western nations need to strengthen financial regulation, learn to make ends meet and enhance the real economy, while China is expected to implement a gradual restructuring of its economy.

    Nowadays, the Chinese government is making efforts to alter the country's growth model by optimizing income distribution and expanding domestic demand. Haste makes waste, and it certainly takes time before any meaningful changes can occur.

    It is no doubt that the Chinese economy would go bust if the yuan were abruptly appreciated as requested by some Western nations, which apparently would inflict huge losses on related enterprises in those countries.

    On the other hand, a stronger yuan will not necessarily lead to a balanced trade in the Western nations because the vacuum left by China will be filled up quickly by other major manufacturing economies.

    In short, a dramatic appreciation of the yuan is by no means a miraculous cure for the present economic woes of the Western nations.