12-14-06

美國在貿易對話開始時要求中國讓匯率自由浮動 (US Urges China to Freely Float Currency at Start of Trade Talks)

美國財政部長亨利.保爾森在北京的高層經濟對話開始時敦促中國讓貨幣更靈活。

保爾森率領一個包括幾名內閣級官員和美國聯邦儲備委員會主席(伯南克)在內的代表團訪問北京。

美國企業界向代表團施壓，希望美國在人民幣匯率和市場準入方面對中國採取強硬路線。

華盛頓認為，人民幣幣值被壓低，使中國出口產品價格過低，使美國企業無法競爭。

保爾森星期四說，美國代表團還將敦促中國打擊侵犯知識產權的行為。

中國國務院副總理吳儀說，中國正在增加進口，以抵消貿易順差，中國正努力實現進出口的大致平衡。

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has urged China to make its currency more flexible, at the start of high-level economic talks in Beijing.

Paulson is leading a U.S. delegation that includes several cabinet-rank officials and (Ben Bernanke,) the head of the Federal Reserve.

The delegation is under pressure from U.S. companies to take a hard line with China over the value of its currency and market access.

Washington says the yuan is being kept undervalued, making Chinese exports unfairly cheap and preventing U.S. companies from being competitive.

Paulson said Thursday that his delegation also will urge China to crackdown on product piracy.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi says China is increasing imports to offset its trade surplus, and that the country is striving for a rough balance between imports and exports.

人權活動人士敦促韓中善待北韓難民 (Rights Activists Urge South Korea, China to Improve Treatment of North Korean Refugees)

人權活動人士呼籲南韓和中國改善他們給北韓難民的待遇。

美國的北韓人權委員會星期四發表報告，敦促中國停止把北韓難民當作“經濟移民”。

報告說，被遣返的北韓人會受到虐待和監禁。

這個人權組織還敦促北京履行對難民的國際責任，允許設立臨時難民營，讓國際救濟機構前往邊境地區。

這個組織認為，南韓對北韓難民越來越不歡迎，對他們不屑一顧，該組織對此表示關注。目前在南韓有大約一萬名北韓人。

這個報告是根據對躲藏在中國的大約1300名北韓人的調查結果而撰寫的。

Rights activists are calling on South Korea and China to improve their treatment of North Korean refugees.

The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea issued a report Thursday urging China to stop treating the refugees as economic migrants.

The report says the North Koreans sent home from China face torture and imprisonment.

The rights group urges Beijing to honor its international obligations to refugees and to allow the establishment of temporary refugee resettlement camps and access to border areas by international relief agencies.

The group also expresses concern about what it considers South Korea's increasingly unwelcome and dismissive attitude towards the refugees. There are some 10 thousand North Koreans in the South.

The report is based on the results of a survey of some 13-hundred North Koreans hiding in China.