The U.S.-China relationship has turned increasingly testy recently, especially on the economic side, with disputes arising over trade, China's currency policy and the Asian titan's respect for corporate law.
A bipartisan duo of Treasury Secretaries — Hank Paulson, who served under President George W. Bush, and Robert Rubin, who served under President Clinton — are concerned. It's important for both countries to compromise, they say.
"Discussions of the U.S.-China economic relationship too often begin with a recital of each country's grievances against the other," they write in
The Atlantic.
"The usual litany of American criticisms includes China's management of its exchange rate, subsidies that benefit state-owned enterprises and barriers to American companies seeking to operate in China."
On the flip side, China takes after the U.S. government for its bulging debt burden, its opposition to Chinese investment in U.S. companies and infrastructure and its export-control laws.
"We believe it's time to turn the typical exchange of economic critiques on its head," Rubin and Paulson state.
"It is in each country's self-interest to meaningfully address the criticisms made by the other," they add.
"As former U.S. Treasury secretaries with long experience working with China, we believe each country should undertake significant reforms. Seriously considering each other's criticisms is a good way to begin."
Elsewhere on the China front, "everyone, these days, is looking for a bubble here in the U.S.," CNBC commentator
Ron Insana writes in a commentary for CNBC. "But it may be more wise to look overseas — to China."
When it comes to Chinese stocks, they're "shooting up like bottle rockets, lifted, in large part, by individual investors," he says. And we're all aware that the excitement of retail investors often signals an overvalued market. "They are often the last ones to arrive at a party, and the first to be carried out the door."
The Shanghai Stock Exchange Index has returned a whopping 40 percent so far this year.
"The speculative excesses on display in China, including a 165-foot tall statue of a bull at the Shenzhen Exchange, is reminiscent of the heady days of individual investors chasing the hot stocks of the 1990s, here at home," Insana writes.
"This all comes as China's exports to the rest of the world dropped 15 percent year-over-year [in March]. Talk about a bull in a China shop!"
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