[Peace-discuss] China considers dumping the dollar.

[E. Wayne Johnson]

U.S. has plundered world wealth with dollar: China paper
Fri Oct 24, 2008 6:14am EDT
BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States has plundered global wealth by 
exploiting the dollar's dominance, and the world urgently needs other 
currencies to take its place, a leading Chinese state newspaper said on 
Friday.

The front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily 
said that Asian and European countries should banish the U.S. dollar 
from their direct trade relations for a start, relying only on their own 
currencies.

A meeting between Asian and European leaders, starting on Friday in 
Beijing, presented the perfect opportunity to begin building a new 
international financial order, the newspaper said.

The People's Daily is the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist 
Party. The Chinese-language overseas edition is a small circulation 
offshoot of the main paper.

Its pronouncements do not necessarily directly voice leadership views. 
But the commentary, as well as recent comments, amount to a growing 
chorus of Chinese disdain for Washington's economic policies and global 
financial dominance in the wake of the credit crisis.

"The grim reality has led people, amidst the panic, to realize that the 
United States has used the U.S. dollar's hegemony to plunder the world's 
wealth," said the commentator, Shi Jianxun, a professor at Shanghai's 
Tongji University.

Shi, who has before been strident in his criticism of the U.S., said 
other countries had lost vast amounts of wealth because of the financial 
crisis, while Washington's sole concern had been protecting its own 
interests.

"The U.S. dollar is losing people's confidence. The world, acting 
democratically and lawfully through a global financial organization, 
urgently needs to change the international monetary system based on U.S. 
global economic leadership and U.S. dollar dominance," he wrote.

Shi suggested that all trade between Europe and Asia should be settled 
in euros, pounds, yen and yuan, though he did not explain how the 
Chinese currency could play such a role since it is not convertible on 
the capital account.

A two-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) of 27 EU member states and 16 Asian 
countries was set to open on Friday. Though few analysts expect much in 
the way of concrete agreements, Shi said it could prove momentous.

"How can Europe and Asia grasp each other's hands and together confront 
the once-in-a-century global financial crisis sparked by the U.S.; how 
can they construct a new equitable and safe international financial 
order?" he said.

"The world is waiting for this Asian-European meeting to achieve big 
results in financial cooperation."

(Reporting by Simon Rabinovitch; Editing by Ken Wills)