Financial crisis offers China "historic" opportunity
China - the world's future economic powerhouse
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Friday, 14, Nov 2008 12:01
China is missing a "historic" opportunity to shift the global balance of power by making an impact on the economic crisis, it has been claimed.
Jonathan Eyal of the Royal United Services Institute said China's response to the crisis will reveal key questions about the future balance of world power.
He suggested that China, which sits on the world's biggest foreign currency reserves, has yet to step up and use them to influence the global economy.
The way China has been handled globally is "absolutely frivolous", he continued, before adding the country has a "historic moment to turn from a developing country into a developed country".
Dr Eyal's comments came as RUSI, in collaboration with the Centre for Study of Financial Innovation, published a report assessing the strategic implications of the global financial crisis.
"This is what the world has been waiting for: the recalibration of decision-making in international financial institutions, with China assuming its 'rightful' role," it said.
Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao has made clear internal priorities trump others, however.
Former foreign minister Denis MacShane, who also attended the report's launch, agreed that China needed to overcome its internal preoccupation to help deal with the wider economic crisis.
"China is not letting any money leave the country," he said, before describing its inaction as "frightening".