Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao accused US lawmakers of politicising currency levels, saying that a trade surplus was natural at his country's stage of development, in an interview with CNN that aired Sunday. "China does not pursue a trade surplus," Wen told CNN's Fareed Zakaria in a rare interview with foreign media.
"Some people in the United States, in particular some in the US Congress, do not know fully about China. They are politicising the problems in China-US relations - in particular, the trade imbalance between our two countries," he said. US lawmakers, led by members of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, have accused China of deliberately keeping its currency low to boost exports, contributing to the steady losses of manufacturing jobs in the United States.
With elections approaching, the US House of Representatives last week voted to broaden the powers of the Commerce Department to allow it to impose tariffs on products due to currency manipulation.