China will not bow to foreign and speculative pressures to adjust the yuan, a senior finance ministry official was quoted today as saying.
"No country is able to proceed with an adjustment in its foreign exchange rate amid external noise and speculative pressure," the Economic Information Dailyquoted Zhu Guangyao, head of the ministry's international department as saying.
"The higher external pressure, the louder the outside noise, the more they will hinder China's further reforms of the exchange rate regime," Zhu was quoted as saying.
Mr Zhu repeated Beijing's stance that foreign countries should leave China to decide the pace of its currency reforms because the exchange rate was a matter of its sovereign rights.
"China's direction of reforms is clear and its determination is firm, but it will not bow to foreign pressure," he said.
Some of China's trading partners, in particular the United States, have said that Beijing must allow the yuan to rise in value because the current peg of 8.28 to the dollar is too low and makes China's exports much cheaper than they would be if the currency floated freely.
US law-makers have threatened to use punitive trade sanctions to compel China to modify its currency policy, but Washington has been trying to avoid such harsh tactics.
Beijing has pledged to make the yuan more flexible through gradual reforms but has said it will make reforms according to its own needs, rejecting suggestions any move on the yuan would help narrow the US current account deficit.