Dear CIGAs,

The following article provides what I believe is a window into what the Chinese actually think in regards to the Dollar. As was pointed out by an informed reader in an earlier post this week and as Jim has long said, the East tends to speak indirectly and drop hints about their intentions and/or wishes that must oftentimes be ferreted out by those of us in the West who do not understand this mode of “diplomacy”. The bluntness of this article is all the more startling for that very reason.

U.S. has plundered world wealth with dollar: China paper
Fri Oct 24, 2008 6:14am EDT

BEIJING (Reuters) – The United States has plundered global wealth by exploiting the dollar’s dominance, and the world urgently needs other currencies to take its place, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on Friday.

The front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the People’s Daily said that Asian and European countries should banish the U.S. dollar from their direct trade relations for a start, relying only on their own currencies.

A meeting between Asian and European leaders, starting on Friday in Beijing, presented the perfect opportunity to begin building a new international financial order, the newspaper said.

The People’s Daily is the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party. The Chinese-language overseas edition is a small circulation offshoot of the main paper.

Its pronouncements do not necessarily directly voice leadership views. But the commentary, as well as recent comments, amount to a growing chorus of Chinese disdain for Washington’s economic policies and global financial dominance in the wake of the credit crisis.

“The grim reality has led people, amidst the panic, to realize that the United States has used the U.S. dollar’s hegemony to plunder the world’s wealth,” said the commentator, Shi Jianxun, a professor at Shanghai’s Tongji University.

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