Scott Eldridge II reports:

Henry Paulson, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, is in China meeting with Chinese officials including premier Wen Jiabao and president Hu Jintao. NPR’s evening news program “All Things Considered” had an interesting piece last night about how Paulson, the former head of Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs has the opportunity to create a legacy for himself if (and this seems to be an important if) he can convince Chinese officials of the U.S. perspective on its currency controls. Washington has for a long time been trying to get Beijing to ease controls on the yuan, threatening everything from tariffs to World Trade Organization action, but as of yet most experts say little or nothing has been done to let the yuan float.

An interesting side note to the NPR story: Paulson has already had a very successfully career, and back when his name was being bounced around as a successor to former secretary John Snow to take the helm at Treasury, it was widely reported that he did not want the job, but saw an opportunity to do something more at Treasury. NPR reports that the “something more” could be fixing the “China problem.”They go on to say that of all the problems President George W. Bush is having politically (the war in Iraq, Iran and North Korea Nuclear issues, and more) he could still create a political success story if he finds some sort of victory in dealing with China.
It’s worth a listen. Guanxi readers will recognize Peter Morici from the first issue of Guanxi: The China letter on “The China Threat?”, in which he contributed a piece on the trade deficit.

Marketplace, another public radio program, had an item on its morning program on Thursday as well.