The U.S. dollar plays an important role in the global monetary system and dollar assets are an important part of China's foreign exchange reserve, the central bank said Sunday. (File Photo)

    BEIJING, Aug. 13 -- The U.S. dollar plays an important role in the global monetary system and dollar assets are an important part of China's foreign exchange reserve, the central bank said Sunday.

    The announcement by the People's Bank of China (PBOC), experts said, should scotch rumors that Beijing would sell off its U.S. dollar reserve in response to Washington's pressure to revaluate the yuan.

    "The U.S. financial market is huge and has high liquidity, and the dollar assets, including U.S. government bonds, are an important component of China's foreign exchange reserve investment," a PBOC official said.

    Last week, the UK's Daily Telegraph reported that two Beijing "officials" had sent an "economic threat" saying China could "liquidate its vast holding of U.S. treasuries if Washington imposes trade sanctions to force a yuan revaluation".

    The newspaper said the remarks were in response to the passage of a bill by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee last month that would impose higher trade tariffs on China-made goods if Beijing refused to revalue the yuan at a faster pace.

    Economists Xia Bin and He Fan, of the State Council Development Research Center and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, were quoted as saying that if Beijing triggered a dollar crash now, when the U.S. dollar is weak, it could cause a spike in U.S. bond yields, ruin the country's housing market and even slow down its economy.

    U.S. officials responded strongly to the report because Washington has been struggling with the financial mess caused by the sub-prime mortgage crisis.

    The PBOC official's statement ruling out any such threat said China, which had a foreign exchange reserve of 1.33 trillion U.S. dollars by the end of June, is a responsible investor in the international capital market.

    "For China, safety, liquidity and investment returns are the main targets of its foreign exchange reserve management," the official said.

    "In deciding the portfolio of the currency assets structure, (we) have consistently stuck to a long-term, strategic policy, taking into consideration multiple factors such as China's foreign economic development, evolution of the international monetary system, as well as changes in the international capital and foreign exchange markets."

    The official called for dialogue and exchanges to enhance bilateral understanding.

    "The close economic and trade relations between China and the U.S. play an important role in the stable economic development of the two countries, as well as the world economy," the official said.

    China attaches great importance to strengthening bilateral communication and exchanges, including the Sino-U.S. strategic economic dialogue, to reach a consensus, he said.

    (Source: China Daily)

Central bank: China a responsible investor in int'l financial market

    BEIJING, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- In response to a media report saying that "China threatens to trigger U.S. dollar crash", the country's central bank said here Sunday that China is a responsible investor in the international financial market.

    On Aug. 8, a U.K. media reported that two senior Chinese officials warned in an interview that Beijing may use its 1.33 trillion of foreign reserves as a bargaining chip in talks with the U.S. on issues such as yuan revaluation.