Geithner and ‘Uncle’ Wang to Spar Over Yuan at Beijing Dialogue

The Chinese official who will face Timothy Geithner inAir Max 95 Beijing today jokingly calls himself the Treasury secretary’s “uncle” because of a family connection. Geithner may one day call him “Premier.” Vice Premier Wang Qishan leads the delegation meeting withAir Max 97 Geithner and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the Strategic and Economic Dialogue, which will discuss yuan revaluation, Europe’s debt crisis and North Korea’s nuclear program. Wang, who oversees China’s financial sector, is mentioned for membership in China’s ruling Politburo Standing Committee and as a successor to Premier Wen Jiabao, two China experts say. Geithner says Wang is China’s “definitive preeminent troubleshooter, firefighter, problem solver.” He is also a high-level emissary to business leaders: During a three-month stretch this year, Wang met with Citigroup Inc. Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit, JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon and UBS Investment Bank Vice Chairman Leon Brittan. “Wang has done everything and he’s very good atAir Max 93 it,” said Robert Hormats, the U.S. undersecretary of state for economics, energy and agriculture and a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who first met Wang in the 1980s. “He knows the American relationship inside and out. He has had great relations with a number of American officials for decades.” China’s top leaders regularly tap him to Air Max 03extract the country from crises, including the 1998 collapse of a provincial investment company and the 2003 outbreak of a deadly virus in Beijing. As mayor, Wang also headed the Chinese capital’s preparations for the 2008 Olympic Games. Standing Committee? Dimon said in an e-mail that Wang was “extremely smart, engaged and Air Max 04deeply knowledgeable about issues, finance and history.” Li Cheng, director of research at Air Max 1the Brookings Institution’s John L. Thornton China Center in Washington, says Wang’s experience means he’ll likely be named to the standing committee in 2012, giving foreign bankers a familiar face at the top of China’s power structure. Wang, 61, is also being mentioned within the party as a possible candidate to succeed Wen in 2013, when the country will be looking for a seasoned hand to guide China to full yuan convertibility, said Li and Victor Shih, a professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, who studies Chinese politics and finance. “He would help push for the convertibility of the yuan inAir Max 96 a very positive way,” Shih said. Market Forces Wang is already getting pushed on the currency by Geithner. In Air Max 180 TR+a May 14 interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” Geithner said: “I think it is in China’s interest that they move to let their exchange rate start to gradually reflect market forces again.” The yuan’s value has been fixed to about 6.83 to one U.S. dollar forAir Max 180+ almost two years. Wang won’t have the final say. He is one member of the 25- person Politburo, which sets policy for the government and the ruling Communist Party. And up to now, the government has resisted U.S. pressure to end or loosen the peg. “Only the authorities of Air Max Wrighta sovereign country have the right to decide how to form the exchange rate,” Assistant Finance Minister Zhu Guangyao said in Beijing on May 20. Li Keqiang, the executive vice premier, is a member of the standing committee, now with nine members, and is the front- runner to succeed Wen, Brookings’ Li said. Air Max 360 Nike Air Max 90 Nike Air Max 95 Nike Air Max 97 Kobe Bryant Shoes