BEIJING — China sought Sunday to deflate rising pressure from the U.S. and other powers over Chinese economic policies and growing assertiveness in world affairs, with its prime minister promising cooperation to bolster the global recovery.
Premier Wen Jiabao took on critics in the West who say Chinese policies lift China while keeping global growth anemic. He defended China's currency against charges that it is undervalued to boost Chinese exports. He promised that Beijing would import more and urged countries to resist protectionism, saying one country should not seek to disadvantage others during the fragile economic recovery.
"We are opposed to the position of engaging in mutual finger-pointing or taking strong measures to force other countries to adjust exchange rates," Wen said in a more than two-hour news conference.
Wen also criticized Washington for souring relations with the recent White House reception for the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Chinese-controlled Tibet, and for approving arms sales to Taiwan, which China claims as its own. "The responsibility does not lie with the Chinese side, but the United States," he said.
His arguments, while breaking little new ground, were offered in Wen's characteristically mild, carefully rational manner. No. 3 in the Communist Party hierarchy and chiefly in charge of the economy, Wen is also the generally stiff leadership's most popular figure; grand-fatherly and solicitous, he is known as the "people's premier."
His news conference is the only one Wen holds all year and is thus often used by the government to send a message to the public and world. Questions from the foreign and domestic media were prescreened.
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