In Exporting Its Crisis,U.S. Has Ulterior Motive

The U.S. Senate passed the Currency Exchange Rate Oversight Reform Act of 2011 on Oct. 11, forcing its trade partners through legislation to appreciate their currency, or the U.S. would impose sanctions upon them. This action by America has openly infringed upon other countries’ currency sovereignty and sent the international community a dangerous signal of exporting its domestic crisis.

This kind of action that damages the interests of others while not bringing any benefit to itself is opposed by some serious American statesmen, including John Boehner, the speaker of the House of Representatives. They think that the act has not solved the key problem in the current American economic situation and does not help the U.S. economy recover. What’s worse, it runs the risk of triggering a trade war.

International public opinion shows that this act is considered to be ready-made to target China. It’s not news that since the global financial crisis, some American politicians would make a fuss over the RMB exchange rate, but it was unheard of that the Senate would get involved and pass legislation to add fuel to the fire of the Sino-U.S. struggle. This has left people drawing a big question mark in their heads about the so-called sincerity that the U.S. government has been showing for the past two years to make a joint effort with China to get over any difficulties.

China has been working hard and making serious efforts in improving the RMB exchange rate issue. Ever since the 2005 currency reform, the RMB has appreciated 30 percent against the USD. During the same period, however, the unemployment rate in the U.S. has increased from seven to nine percent and has been hovering high since then. It could be clearly seen that there is not necessarily a direct link between the RMB exchange rate and America’s unemployment rate. Looking across the world economy since the financial crisis, we can see that it has been China and other newly emerged economic entities that have been maintaining the world economy, and their contribution to the growth of the world economy has far exceeded what the developed countries have done. If America is really thinking about exporting its domestic crisis, it will not only be unfair to other countries but also be a hard task to achieve. Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner recently called for the newly emerged markets to watch out and prevent the exportation of the developed countries’ crisis.

The U.S. is the birth place of this financial crisis, and it’s also the most important and developed member in the world economic and financial system. It should have sought causes for its problems in the path of development itself, tried to gain wisdom from history and experience and looked for a thorough cure for its crisis. Some American politicians, however, have always been asking others to save the economy and then accusing them of not cooperating effectively. They rely on America’s national strength and high world status in an attempt to export America’s domestic crisis. They always hold a flashlight to others and try to find someone to carry the responsibility for them, yet are never willing to think for themselves what their real problem is.

Crisis itself is not frightening; what is frightening is the lack of courage when facing it. As the latecomer of big powers, America has ascended to its current status by effectively overcoming challenging difficulties. During the 1930s, while facing the Great Depression, America took instant action and implemented the New Deal policies, reforming the financial, industrial and agricultural sectors, as well as social welfare and even the system of separation of powers. The policies successfully pushed the U.S. economy toward a quick recovery, and hence it has laid a sound foundation for America’s leading role in today’s world.

Today’s America cannot get away from its responsibility just by making small mends in insignificant areas, let alone exporting its crisis to other countries. The recent “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations have spread like wildfire across America. The demand of the American public is no longer for simply jobs and welfare, but it has become serious dissatisfaction and disappointment with the current political system and the ruling party. Those statesmen with a sense of responsibility and those real experts in the U.S. should muster the courage, face up to the problems America has in itself and find the right cure for it. For those who only think about finding fault with others, they may have forgotten that “God helps those who help themselves.”

The world is waiting to see what way America will choose to walk out of the crisis.