How the Chinese drevalue the yuan

Now we know that the Chinese devalued the yuan — and we know pretty much why. But what were nuts and bolts of the decision-making process? How did it hapen? The staff at the Wall Street Journal has a great essay on the two-year process by which the Chinese decided to revalue their yuan. The ...

By , a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast.

Now we know that the Chinese devalued the yuan -- and we know pretty much why. But what were nuts and bolts of the decision-making process? How did it hapen? The staff at the Wall Street Journal has a great essay on the two-year process by which the Chinese decided to revalue their yuan. The opening is killer:

Now we know that the Chinese devalued the yuan — and we know pretty much why. But what were nuts and bolts of the decision-making process? How did it hapen? The staff at the Wall Street Journal has a great essay on the two-year process by which the Chinese decided to revalue their yuan. The opening is killer:

Last Thursday morning, several key foreign banks were asked to send a representative to the headquarters of the People’s Bank of China, the central bank. The topic wasn’t clear. The meeting began around the time China’s foreign-exchange market was closing for the day at 3:30 p.m. As a central-bank official began to talk, the doors were shut and locked. “They started talking about something that wasn’t very useful and then started to collect mobile phones and BlackBerrys,” said a banker who was briefed later. The Chinese then distributed a four-point statement: Beijing was unlinking the yuan from the U.S. dollar effective immediately. Then another surprise: The bankers were told they would have to cool their heels until an official statement was read nearly three hours later on China’s government-controlled 7 p.m. news program. That last-minute combination of surprise and secrecy was in keeping with the long-running drama over the yuan. (emphasis added)

UPDATE: Sorry, typo in the heading — it should have been “revalue” and not “devalue” thanks to commenters for pointing out the error.

Daniel W. Drezner is a professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and co-host of the Space the Nation podcast. Twitter: @dandrezner

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