China will not be bullied by anyone, certainly not
by a bunch of western politicians and central
bankers. The Group of Twenty Finance Minister and Heads of central banks met
in China at the weekend. The International Herald Tribune reports:
“The Bush administration on Sunday promoted a
sweeping plan to overhaul China’s financial markets and open the country to foreign banks, investment firms and insurance
companies.

“Chinese officials offered virtually no public reaction on
the US agenda. In a brief news conference at
the end of a meeting of finance ministers from 20 nations, Finance Minister
Jin Renqing took a handful of innocuous questions
from Chinese reporters and then called an end to
the proceedings.

The Australian Financial Review sees the
big news differently: “Australia has taken a leading role in the reform of the International Monetary Fund and the
World Bank, with Treasurer Peter Costello pushing
through a road map for change at the annual meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bankers in Xianghe, China,
yesterday.”

Members of the G20 yesterday warned at the end of a
two-day meeting that the risks for the global
economy were on the downside. High oil prices are a major destabilising
factor, but bird flu and overvalued asset markets
in the western nations, especially the USA, are also on the worry
list.

Read more here.