US's Lew to urge China to play fair economically

US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will urge China to play by therules economically when he meets top officials in Beijing next week, officials said.Lew will spend Tuesday in talks with Chinese counterparts, with China's reformagenda, the coming annual US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue, and "effortsto level the playing field for US workers and firms" on the stated agenda."As China continues to grow, our top priority will continue to be to encourage Chinato do so in a way that is fair, balanced and consistent with the international rules," a senior Treasury official told reporters in a briefing about the trip.The official said Washington wants Beijing to strengthen the protection andenforcement of intellectual property rights, including stopping trade secret thefts. The US also wants China to improve opportunities for American businesses to enterits markets, including opening up to investment in the services sector."There are a host of issues that the secretary will want to raise, all of which areimportant to making the relationship more balanced and fair."It will be Lew's third trip to China since taking up the Treasury position in February2013.On April 30, the Office of the US Trade Representative singled out China's efforts tosteal US trade secrets as "significant concern" in an annual report that againbranded the country as a top violator of intellectual property rights.Also last month, the Treasury warned China over the recent fall in the value of theyuan currency, saying the slide could "raise particularly serious concerns" if itrepresents a reversal in Beijing's commitment to a more free-floating yuan."Obviously China's exchange rate policy is important to us. It's important that theycontinue to move towards a market-determined exchange rate," the official said.Lew said he would encourage China to continue implementing long-term economicreforms, even as the country is going through a rough patch currently."What they can't do is treat the long-term reforms as something that they can justput off," he told Bloomberg TV."They know that their economy, if it doesn't move more toward market-determinedprices... is not going to give them the medium- and long-term growth they need.