12-14-06

美国在贸易对话开始时要求中国让汇率自由浮动 (US Urges China to Freely Float Currency at Start of Trade Talks)

美国财政部长亨利.保尔森在北京的高层经济对话开始时敦促中国让货币更灵活。

保尔森率领一个包括几名内阁级官员和美国联邦储备委员会主席(伯南克)在内的代表团访问北京。

美国企业界向代表团施压，希望美国在人民币汇率和市场准入方面对中国采取强硬路线。

华盛顿认为，人民币币值被压低，使中国出口产品价格过低，使美国企业无法竞争。

保尔森星期四说，美国代表团还将敦促中国打击侵犯知识产权的行为。

中国国务院副总理吴仪说，中国正在增加进口，以抵消贸易顺差，中国正努力实现进出口的大致平衡。

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has urged China to make its currency more flexible, at the start of high-level economic talks in Beijing.

Paulson is leading a U.S. delegation that includes several cabinet-rank officials and (Ben Bernanke,) the head of the Federal Reserve.

The delegation is under pressure from U.S. companies to take a hard line with China over the value of its currency and market access.

Washington says the yuan is being kept undervalued, making Chinese exports unfairly cheap and preventing U.S. companies from being competitive.

Paulson said Thursday that his delegation also will urge China to crackdown on product piracy.

Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi says China is increasing imports to offset its trade surplus, and that the country is striving for a rough balance between imports and exports.

人权活动人士敦促韩中善待北韩难民 (Rights Activists Urge South Korea, China to Improve Treatment of North Korean Refugees)

人权活动人士呼吁韩国和中国改善他们给北韩难民的待遇。

美国的北韩人权委员会星期四发表报告，敦促中国停止把北韩难民当作“经济移民”。

报告说，被遣返的北韩人会受到虐待和监禁。

这个人权组织还敦促北京履行对难民的国际责任，允许设立临时难民营，让国际救济机构前往边境地区。

这个组织认为，韩国对北韩难民越来越不欢迎，对他们不屑一顾，该组织对此表示关注。目前在韩国有大约一万名北韩人。

这个报告是根据对躲藏在中国的大约1300名北韩人的调查结果而撰写的。

Rights activists are calling on South Korea and China to improve their treatment of North Korean refugees.

The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea issued a report Thursday urging China to stop treating the refugees as economic migrants.

The report says the North Koreans sent home from China face torture and imprisonment.

The rights group urges Beijing to honor its international obligations to refugees and to allow the establishment of temporary refugee resettlement camps and access to border areas by international relief agencies.

The group also expresses concern about what it considers South Korea's increasingly unwelcome and dismissive attitude towards the refugees. There are some 10 thousand North Koreans in the South.

The report is based on the results of a survey of some 13-hundred North Koreans hiding in China.