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Scheduled for just 20 minutes, the meeting went on for two hours. U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans had traveled to China to meet with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and press a stern message: Beijing's "unfair" trade practices and refusal to revalue its currency were "undercutting American workers." Wen heard him out during the November sit-down but, according to a Chinese diplomat familiar with the meeting, had a retort at the ready. Surely his American visitor realized that most of China's foreign-exchange reserves were in U.S. Treasury bonds. If China acted precipitously in revaluing its currency, it might be compelled to sell those bonds, which could create instant problems for U.S. financial markets. Wen reportedly told Evans: "China's a very big economy moving ahead very, very fast. If it stumbles and falls, it could make others fall, too."
Not long ago few Chinese leaders would have been comfortable riffing on trade surpluses and T-bonds. But as Wen kicks off an official visit to the United States this week, he represents a new government team, a new sophistication in Beijing--and, in some ways, a new China. Almost as soon as Wen and his boss, President Hu Jintao, took over China's top government jobs in March, they launched an international charm offensive. Globe-trotting from Bali to St. Petersburg, the relatively young duo--each is 61--have promoted a diplomatic style that is eliciting adjectives like "nimble," "subtle" and "nuanced"--words virtually never before used to describe China on the world stage. At a moment when the United States is perceived to have become more unilateralist, China has ironically shown a new appreciation for multilateral agenda-setting- -brokering the six-party talks on North Korea, proposing a free- trade agreement with ASEAN and becoming a more active member of the U.N. Security Council. "They feel less vulnerable internationally than did their predecessors," says Boston College China scholar Robert Ross. "After 20 years of hearing people talk about the rise of China, they're witnessing it happening. It gives them a degree of confidence their predecessors didn't have."
In the old days, Beijing was hot on rhetoric...