Google's move won't hurt us: Chinese official

Jill Dougherty, CNN foreign affairs correspondent


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A Chinese official has said Google's plan to move most of its search functions from the mainland to Hong Kong will not undermine the investment in the country.

China remains a "most attractive place for investment," Vice Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan said at the Chinese embassy in Washington.

Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) is "an exceptional case" that will not harm China's process of opening up to the outside world, Zhong told reporters after a meeting at the U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday.

"We are not saying we are perfect in opening up," he said. "We are trying to improve the process of opening up through trial and error."

The Internet giant Google has announced that it is moving most of its search functions in China from the mainland to Hong Kong in the face of government censorship and a series of cyber attacks.

Zhong said there are more than 50,000 American businesses in China, and most are doing well.

Sales for General Motors grew 67% last year, he said.

Asked whether China will revalue its currency, the yuan, Zhong said it's "not the main factor behind the trade imbalance with the United States."

China, he said, is running a deficit in terms of services with the United States, even if it's running a surplus in goods. The United States, he said, is running a surplus in agricultural trade with China.

It's wrong for the United States to conclude that China is manipulating its currency "by the mere fact that it is running a trade surplus," the vice minister said.

Zhong reiterated Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's stance that Beijing will not yield to external pressure to revalue its currency. He said it's unacceptable for the U.S. to pressure China to revalue its currency.

"If the U.S. rationale is correct, we could say the U.S. dollar is undervalued and we could ask for appreciation of the U.S. dollar and then impose punitive tariffs," Zhong said. "But I don't think the U.S. would accept that."

The basic stability of the yuan is beneficial to the United States and the world, Zhong said, and added that he hoped for a stable U.S. dollar.

"We can imagine that a big dip in the U.S. dollar would be a huge disaster for the world economy just on its way to recovery" from economic crisis, he said. To top of page

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